Ministers to discuss new migration strategy as row breaks out in Cork council chamber
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Senior government ministers are to meet this week to discuss a new government strategy on migration.
Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman will brief Cabinet colleagues at the Cabinet committee on Ukraine on Thursday about his plans to build, lease and acquire buildings to house international protection applicants.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee is expected to bring an outline of Ireland's migration system with updates on deportation to the meeting.
Sources have said Ms McEntee, along with Mr O’Gorman, plan to bring a joint memo to Cabinet in the coming weeks. Part of the strategy will include a fresh communication plan which will seek to outline Ireland’s “fair” immigration system.
It’s expected it will seek to inform the public how inward migration is beneficial for Ireland in a socio-economic context given the demographic challenges that the country is increasingly facing with an ageing population.
It’ll point to how migrants work in vital sectors such as housing, construction and healthcare. It will also outline how there is a duty on the State to ensure that those who arrive here are legally entitled to do so and such work is done by a rules-based system.
It’s also understood the communication strategy will also mention how climate change will have an impact on migration.
It comes as the Mayor of County Cork was forced to intervene in a debate in which a Fianna Fáil councillor referenced the “huge unfair burden of the unknown” placed on communities taking in International Protection Applicants.
The first part of the motion by Cllr Deirdre O’Brien called on the Government to “outline its policy of sourcing accommodation for International Protection Applicants” including the type of accommodation and also for better communication to communities where they're to be located.
However, there was division in relation to the second part of her motion which referenced that “discontentment, division is rising in many of our communities and rural areas as there is feeling of huge unfair burden of the unknown placed on them without adequate resources, services and communications”.
Fellow Fianna Fáil councillor William O’Leary seconded her motion when he questioned how it's safe to have a proposed 56 IPAs move into a former nine-bedroom guest-house in Fermoy. He maintained people protesting in Fermoy and other proposed locations for IPAs couldn’t be considered as far right as they're just outlining their concerns about the inability of certain areas to cope with inadequate back-up services.
However, Fianna Fáil councillor Gearoid Murphy, who's a barrister, expressed concern about the ‘burden’ word in the motion and pointed out in most cases just 50 or 100 refugees arrive into a community.
He said in his hometown of Mallow the council’s own County Development Plan forecasts a population increase of 2,500 in a few years and the plan zoned land for the housing, but doesn't address the services required to support this.
Fine Gael councillor Gerard Murphy said Ireland has an obligation under EU and International agreements to take our fair share of IPAs. His party colleague Eileen Lynch, who is a solicitor, took the same view adding Ireland has exported huge numbers of migrants to other countries for many years.
Independent councillor Frank Roche stressed he’s not racist as he has three foreign nationals living in his home, but understood the concerns of those protesting against the proposed location of IPAs in Fermoy, as allegedly those to be housed there aren't garda vetted.
“Some of our services are overstretched. There’s only so many people we can take in,” Independent councillor Danny Collins said. Social Democrats councillor Liam Quaide said the government’s current approach "is chaotic and reactive.”
“We need a comprehensive, multi-department response to what's an emergency situation; one that will promote meaningful integration of people in our communities over time," he said.
Mayor and Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn said there is enough division in the country over the issue and he didn’t want to see it replicated in the council chamber. Eventually a compromise motion tabled by Independent councillor Marcia D’Alton was agreed to be sent to government.
It read: "That this council calls on the government to outline its policy on the sourcing of accommodation for International Protection Applicants, i.e. type of accommodation considered and how the adequacy of the resources, services and communications to support the identified accommodation is assessed."