Council presses to be consulted on any future plans to move asylum seekers to Tipperary

Tipperary County Council has written to the Taoiseach, the International Protection Office and five senior ministers requesting that it be consulted first before any future decision is made to move asylum seekers into accommodation in towns or villages in the county.

The council has sent the letters in the past week to Leo Varadkar, the International Protection Office, the Minister for Justice, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment and Minister for Environment, Climate & Communications after a motion asking the council to take this action was unanimously passed at the December meeting of its elected members.

The motion was tabled by Nenagh based Independent Cllr Seamus Morris and was prompted by the recent controversy where the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth reversed its plans to house 74 International Protection Applicants in Cashel Town Hostel.

The Department’s u-turn followed a public outcry over the lack of prior communication and consultation with the local community and the fact the hostel was being used as emergency accommodation for homeless people.

The approved council motion that forms the basis for the council’s letters to senior government figures called on Tipperary County Council to ask the International Protection Office or relevant ministers to cease the movement of asylum seekers into towns and villages without first of all contacting local councils to see if the facilities for asylum seekers are in place and if the proposed building offered for the asylum seekers is suitable.

The motion adds: “The contact with the council should happen when the building is offered and the local council should be part of the decision making process thereby taking out the “secrecy” in the process that exists at the moment.”

Before tabling the motion, Cllr Morris removed a clause in the original text of the motion that would have requested the council to propose that all International Protection applicants “should be fully vetted, get Garda clearance and should have successfully made it through the asylum process before they are moved around the country”.

In proposing the motion, Cllr Morris claimed that what happened in Cashel recently “frightened the life out of everybody” and said they couldn’t have people coming into rural areas without the local authority being contacted first to see were facilities in place for them.

Cllr Máirín McGrath said Cllr Morris’ motion as amended was a reasonable request.

She described the Cashel case as a great example of the International Protection Accommodation Service’s neglect of engagement with local authorities. IPAS looked at achieving their objective without looking at the capacity of communities and their resources.

She felt this was creating a lack of confidence and trust in local and national public representatives.

The public thought public representatives must know about International Protection applicants being moved into communities but they don't due to the “sense of secrecy” surrounding the way IPAS worked and the lack of engagement with the local authorities.

This was causing great frustration in the country. “All we are looking for is reasonable engagement with IPAS,” she added.

Fine Gael Cllr Marie Murphy agreed. She complained that she had found it “almost impossible” to get a response from IPAS or the minister’s office on specific issues and she felt part of the problem was business owners offer a service to the department and don’t come to the local council until they have signed the contract to provide accommodation to asylum seekers or Ukrainian refugees.

“I found on numerous occasions over the last eight months that people were signing contracts with the Department and then coming to me, saying ‘What can the council do’.

She requested the council motion to be also sent to the Taoiseach and Environment Minister.

Cashel councillors Roger Kennedy of Fianna Fáil and Cllr Declan Burgess of Fine Gael also spoke in favour of the motion.

Cllr Kennedy recalled the email informing public representatives that International Protection applicants were coming to Cashel was sent at 8.40pm on the Friday of the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis conference with the asyum seekers were due to arrive on the Monday.

He only saw the email the following morning. He pointed out the same panic wouldn’t have arisen if they had been notified earlier.

Cllr Burgess stressed that consultation should never be merely a “box ticking exercise”.

“We need to see consultation that totally works. In relation to the recent situation in Cashel, he said the Department found itself in a “very sticky situation” where it hadn’t done its homework and got caught out due to lack of community engagement with the local authority and public representatives.

“Things like that can’t go on. We can never underestimate the importance of having open dialogue,” he said.

Council Director of Services Brian Beck said the council was beginning to get some preliminary indication from the Department about locations where they are looking at accommodating people.

He admitted it was “frustrating” that the council was not able to engage more positively but at least there was now a recognition of the need to do this. The council would welcome more continuous engagement with Department in this area.