Plans to use two properties in Coolock, Dublin and Dundrum, Co Tipperary to accommodate asylum seekers will proceed notwithstanding continuing local opposition, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said.
There have been a series of arson attacks, protests and violent incidents at the former Crown Paints plant in Coolock this month, with three gardaí injured during clashes at the site.
A protest against Dundrum House Hotel in Co Tipperary being used to house International Protection Applicants has been ongoing since May. A group gave notice earlier this week of their intention to seek a High Court injunction preventing the department from using the hotel to accommodate asylum seekers.
Mr O’Gorman, the Green Party leader, on Wednesday insisted that his department plans to use the hotel premises in Dundrum village for International Protection accommodation for almost 300 people.
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“It has been accommodating around 280 Ukrainian families over the last year or so. There will be an equivalent number of International Protection Applicants, so there won’t be any increase,” he said.
In relation to the Coolock site, where there are plans to house up to 500 such applicants, Mr O’Gorman said his department would also press ahead.
“It’s still our intention to use that site for International Protection families and to continue to advance that,” he said. “The Northside Partnership has a proposal in terms of a wider community engagement. I am very happy to engage in that process and have been in regular contact with the Northside Partnership.”
Mr O’Gorman was speaking outside his department’s offices on Baggot Street in Dublin, where he announced the publication of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy.
He said the action plan for the next two years would look to increase the number of Travellers in employment by 50 per cent and also increase mental health supports for members of the community. He said this was being done as a way of “recognising the very serious challenge that suicide has for the Travelling community at the moment”.
Asked whether he would support cuts in the inheritance tax, which have been called for by members of his Coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the Minister said his party’s priority was to deliver a progressive budget.
“There is a commitment each year to indexation and to make sure that low-paid workers are not in the tax net, and those on the standard rate are not inadvertently brought into the higher rate. That’s our priority on the taxation side of this budget,” he said. “We have about €1.4 billion to spend on taxation. Obviously any other tax measures can be examined in the round in terms of what’s left.”
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