{"id":123812,"date":"2025-11-05T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/123812\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:17:07","slug":"dail-hears-ireland-of-the-welcomes-in-danger-of-being-lost-forever-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/123812\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00e1il hears \u2018Ireland of the welcomes\u2019 in danger of being lost forever \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> has described the arson attack on the International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) centre in Drogheda<\/a> last week as \u201cattempted murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

Referring to the violence of the past two weeks, he said it was \u201cextremely important that in this House, we do not allow that extreme behaviour, or the criminal acts of others, to dictate our policy when it comes to international protection\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister was speaking in a D\u00e1il debate<\/a> on international protection on Wednesday, during which he outlined measures being taken to deal with asylum applications within 12 weeks. <\/p>\n

Labour TD Alan Kelly<\/a> warned that Ireland was in danger of changing, saying: \u201cWe\u2019re going to kill off forever Ireland of the welcomes and that\u2019s what we\u2019re known for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly also accused Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>, Fine Gael<\/a> and Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> of \u201cfrankly unacceptable\u201d commentary on immigration and attempting to \u201cride both horses\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said they were \u201ctrying on the one hand to be pro-migration and on the other making remarks that are totally unacceptable\u201d. <\/p>\n

Introducing the debate, Mr O\u2019Callaghan referred to the recent rioting outside the former Citywest Hotel<\/a>, attacks on garda\u00ed and attempts to attack and damage the accommodation centre there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then last weekend, we saw the reprehensible act of an individual literally trying to set a building on fire in the knowledge that there were people in that building,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that, being honest, that was an attempted murder, if ever I have seen one in terms of the consequences of a fire going up on that stairwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone in the D\u00e1il would be outraged by the acts, he said, adding \u201cit\u2019s important that we not only condemn those acts, but that we do not permit the individuals or those behind perpetrating them to get any belief that their actions will mould or change our behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister pointed to immigration figures as he outlined measures to deal with asylum applications. He said in the year ending April, 2024, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) recorded that 149,200 people had migrated into Ireland and 70,000 had left the country, among them non-EU citizens including Ukrainians. <\/p>\n

Before the Covid pandemic, the State was dealing with between 2,000 and 4,000 asylum claims annually. From 2022 to 2024, in the region of 44,000 to 45,000 people came to Ireland, claiming international protection, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we also were providing temporary protection to people who were fleeing the war in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said \u201cthe surge in numbers created the crisis\u201d, and they were unable to provide accommodation for everyone.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Drogheda arson attack: \u2018The house is on fire. Please answer\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Minister said Ipas staff had increased from 143 in 2019 to 620. Last year, he continued, they delivered 14,000 first decisions on asylum applications, compared to 8,500 in 2023. \u201cAlready this year, we\u2019re seeing 16,600 decisions and I\u2019m confident that by the end of this year, we\u2019ll see 20,000 decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that since July, a pilot project dealing with asylum seekers from Georgia, Brazil, and India had seen over 300 decisions which have gone through the first stage, the appeal stage and \u201cin many instances, deportation order signed within a period of 12 weeks\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a fair system\u201d, he said, rejecting claims it was unfair to process applications with such speed. <\/p>\n

Mr Kelly described it as \u201ca really pertinent, defining moment for our country. We\u2019re not really into extremes yet in this country . . . but we\u2019re in danger of changing as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing the \u201cextreme views\u201d he had seen across all media formats about a very small minority of people, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s very un-Irish. It\u2019s wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy said he and Mr O\u2019Callaghan had worked \u201ctirelessly\u201d on a contribution model for those in international protection. \u201cI believe it makes sense that people who are out there working, that they\u2019re actually paying their income tax, making a contribution towards their cost of accommodation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in justice spokesman Matt Carthy said the international protection system was dysfunctional. \u201cThat\u2019s not the fault of those applying for asylum,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the fault of Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael, which have made a mess of a system that continues to operate in crisis mode.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan has described the arson attack on the International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8938,15049,61,60,18573,43],"class_list":["post-123812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-alan-kelly","tag-dail-eireann","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}