The Green Party Minister, Roderic O Gorman, has issued an order that no accommodation will be offered to asylum seekers. He should hang his head in shame.
This government has let down the homeless, both Irish and migrant.
There are 11,500 people who are registered as homeless or in emergency accommodation. The FF-FG-Green government has totally failed them by:
- Refusing to embark on a state-run programme to build social housing.
- Refusing to declare a housing emergency and impose a real ban on evictions which gives landlords no loopholes.
The decision to throw asylum seekers onto the streets is an extension of an existing ‘do-nothing’ policy on housing.
To cover their failure, this government is claiming ‘Ireland is full’.
It is nonsense. There are 166,000 vacant homes in Ireland plus 60,000 holiday homes.
There is also a vacant land registry but the state is doing little to use it. There is supposed to be a 7% tax on land but only 17 of 31 councils collected any levy.
Planning permission has been granted for 80,000 homes but these are not being built.
The government’s whole policy is driven by an addiction to profit.
The government could build emergency accommodation on public land. They could also use vacant land that is owned by speculators.
They could build homes for the homeless and emergency accommodation for asylum seekers. But they refuse.
