{"id":206849,"date":"2025-12-23T13:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206849\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:19:07","slug":"no-doubt-migration-has-played-part-in-housing-crisis-and-homelessness-says-taoiseach-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/206849\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No doubt\u2019 migration has played part in housing crisis and homelessness, says Taoiseach \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

People who have sought international protection in Ireland are beginning to become a \u201csignificant factor in the growth of homelessness\u201d, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin said while Ireland has to understand how important migration<\/a> has been to our economy and society, there is \u201cno doubt\u201d that over the last two years it has \u201cplayed a part\u201d in the issue of housing<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very conscious that migration has been central to economic growth in Ireland, and there\u2019s been very good societal integration,\u201d Mr Martin told The Irish Times, in an interview in his home constituency of Cork. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach had just returned from a trip to Lebanon, where he met a young person who was born in Syria who is now serving in the Irish army. He added that people of all nationalities also work in Ireland through multinational companies. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said the Cabinet subcommittee on housing had been given a presentation two weeks ago from the The Local Government Management Agency, which explained the composition of those on homelessness lists. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in the figures for the last two years, migration has played a part in housing. It\u2019s impacted on our housing. And when one says that, one gets accused of dogwhistling. I\u2019m not, it\u2019s just a fact,\u201d Mr Martin said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the figures, maybe up to 50 per cent could be non-EU, non-EEA now and some of those could have been in the country for quite some time, working in many instances.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople coming out of direct provision, particularly in the Dublin region, are beginning to be a significant factor in the growth in homelessness. So they come out of direct provision, they could be there three or four years, they could be legally assessed to be resident in the State and all of that. But when they come out of direct provision, there\u2019s family reunification, and so therefore that is a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin added that separation and relationship breakdown was also a factor, \u201cso there\u2019s a variety of factors that give rise to it, but if you stand back from it all, our population has increased very significantly. There are pressures, and our housing output is not at the level it was in the 2000s and it needs to get to 50,000 to 60,000 houses per annum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin also said the Government still needs to \u201csocialise\u201d the case for dismantling the Triple Lock with the public. The Triple Lock refers to the permission that is required from the Government, the D\u00e1il and the UN Security Council before more than 12 Irish soldiers can be sent on an overseas mission. The Government believes that countries such as China and Russia should not be allowed to veto Irish missions. <\/p>\n

Mr Martin said a follow-up mission to Unifil in Lebanon, which could focus on training the Lebanese defence forces and demining, is one example of a mission that could be blocked. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t do that now, because of the Triple Lock,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He also said that if there was a peace settlement in Ukraine without a UN Security Council resolution, Ireland \u201cwould like\u201d to play a role in ceasefire monitoring. \u201cWithout a Security Council resolution, we couldn\u2019t participate in that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we defend the Security Council method, into the future the opportunities for peacekeeping will diminish. We do need to socialise that more with the Irish public.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked if more work needed to be done on that before legislation to unravel the Triple Lock could be brought forward, Mr Martin said \u201cyes\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach was speaking one week after a review of his party\u2019s disastrous presidential campaign was finally published. Mr Martin said he was \u201churt\u201d and \u201ctaken aback\u201d by commentary that had suggested that members of his top team had known more about Jim Gavin\u2019s issue with a former tenant then had been shared with the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was taken aback by some of the commentary, very taken aback by the commentary the weekend before the release of the report, because the notion that somehow we had kept something back from the party in respect of Jim Gavin was just inconceivable to me. That hurt a bit,\u201d Mr Martin said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who have sought international protection in Ireland are beginning to become a \u201csignificant factor in the growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,3662,1629,1843,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-206849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-housing-crisis","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-micheal-martin","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206849","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=206849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}