Paul Nicholas Gogarty: Protect Refugees, Tough on Abusers

Go raibh maith agat, leas Ciann Comhairle. We have to make a difference, Minister, between those who need our help and those who don't. And we've made a commitment to the Ukrainian people, some of it because we are not supplying weaponry as a militarily neutral country to help the Ukrainians in their fight against the illegal Russian invasion and onslaught that's killed so many of their people. So we have made a commitment and if you make a commitment Minister, you have to continue to follow through on it. So that's why I welcome the extension until 2027. We know that the Irish Red Cross in its previous work had highlighted that a lot of the properties coming in under the ARP wouldn't have been put out into the rental market and that remains the case. That doesn't mean that there aren't some properties that would otherwise be rented out. But when you look at it in a holistic way, by abolishing the properties under the ARP, what you're basically going to do is put more people under pressure and put more pressure on the housing market, when in essence a lot of the properties here are providing a cheap way of accommodating those who need the help. And I recognize that there's no new properties being brought into it, so I think it's a balance. On the wider level, we under the UN conventions have recognized consistently our need to protect those who are fleeing from persecution from elsewhere. And again, despite a minority, a small minority in this house, but a vocal minority outside this house, we've lived up to our obligations to provide refuge to those coming here. But I know the Chief Minister has said that we need to tighten up the process and I fully support the tightening up of the process and processing claims quicker within the six-month period. It's tied into the Ukrainian side of things purely because of the actual number of people who actually will need accommodation. Anyone granted refugee status in this country needs accommodation. But I do want to reiterate that the vast majority of those coming into Ireland at the moment seeking international protection have been found on appeal to be economic migrants. We do need certain areas of work where people from abroad can make a valuable contribution, but the asylum process is not the way to go through it. So I do think we need to speed up people coming in and then going back out again. But I would say on the record that we do need a moratorium for people who are here for a long period of time, especially children, as it's absolutely inhumane to send them back after a prolonged period. I'm saying that by means that there are people in this country who have abused our welcome. There are people in this country who are free to come to Ireland because they're EU citizens and have abused our welcome, even though there is free movement and certain criteria in relation to that. So if you're talking about sending people out of Ireland, I would be thinking about the scammers who threw a man out of a taxi or the individual who ejaculated upon a woman on the Lewis. Are these sort of people being told after they get a sentence, if they get a sentence, that you're no longer welcome in this country and get out and stay out? They're the sort of people who shouldn't be in this country and we should be seen to be extremely tough on them. But the Ukrainians who are fleeing an ongoing war, they need our support, they need our continued support. And people who are fleeing war and persecution in other parts of the world, we've seen Syria before, we've seen obviously the ongoing genocide in Gaza. These are the sort of people who need our ongoing support as well. We have obligations and we should live up to them. I do take on board the pressures that the housing crisis is putting on people and I point out in my constituency again where with 20% of software companies employing people from overseas in non-essential jobs, they're all high-paid jobs, they want to locate in the suburbs, that's where the software companies are. And we need to re-look at where our policy goes in terms of where software and pharmaceutical companies are located so that they should be in the golden triangle between Lone, Mullingar and Tullamore and that people, if they are commuting, they should be heading westwards rather than eastwards. I've said that but there is a pressure on housing and we need to address that. But you don't address it by looking at making it harder for the vulnerable people coming here from Ukraine, from Syria, from Sudan, from other conflict zones. We have to protect those people while at the same time getting tougher on those who are, nice as they may be, migrants seeking a better way of life, which should be through the work permit system, Minister. So I welcome the extension for 2027 because it does the right thing, to be quite honest. Thank you.