Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan has confirmed that the State is in possession of 35 residential homes designated for asylum seeker accommodation, saying he has \u201cno intention of procuring more homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking during an exchange with Gript today, the Fianna F\u00e1il Minister said the properties had been purchased by the Department of Children in 2022 and 2023, but added that he did not believe all of them were currently occupied.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Callaghan was questioned after Gript previously reported earlier this month that the Department had confirmed the existence of 35 residential properties owned by the State for use by people seeking international protection.<\/p>\n
Asked how the policy could be justified amid the housing crisis, the Minister said the homes had already been purchased by the State several years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, in terms of those 35 homes, they were homes that were purchased by the Department of Children,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was back in 2022, 2023. I don\u2019t have any intention of procuring more homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minister also disputed the suggestion that all of the properties were currently occupied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not, don\u2019t think it\u2019s correct to say all of them are occupied at present,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they were properties that were purchased previously and can be used for the benefit of people seeking international protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Callaghan also said that residential homes were not his preferred method of accommodating people arriving into Ireland through the international protection system.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not the method that I want to see people accommodated if they\u2019re coming to Ireland seeking international protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appropriate mechanism for accommodation is in larger centres.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be in the business of providing houses to people who are seeking international protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
As reported by Gript earlier this month, the Department previously confirmed that the 35 residential properties were intended for \u201cin-community accommodation\u201d where larger group settings were considered unsuitable.<\/p>\n
According to the Department\u2019s statement at the time, the homes were being used to accommodate \u201cvery vulnerable residents\u201d.<\/p>\n
The issue first arose publicly following reports concerning a property in the Forgehill estate in Stamullen, Co Meath, which had been designated for use by applicants for international protection.<\/p>\n
Local residents had raised concerns after learning the house was intended for IPAS accommodation, while community representatives were invited to meetings with the Department\u2019s Community Engagement Team regarding the development.<\/p>\n
The earlier Gript report also noted claims from local representatives that the nearby Stadalt House accommodation centre in Stamullen was housing around 20 families.<\/p>\n
The Department\u2019s confirmation that residential homes had been purchased by the State for international protection accommodation prompted wider discussion online regarding housing supply and the use of residential properties during the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan has confirmed that the State is in possession of 35 residential homes designated for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62040,14258,61,1629,60,6830,43],"class_list":["post-466787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-asylum","tag-ben-scallan","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-migration","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466787","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=466787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}