Chainsaw-wielding man jumped out of van and threatened security guards at Dublin 4 building earmarked for migrants
D4 has fallen
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Kyle Hayes most likely
I can’t believe Shane Ross wrote something so cogent and with such a demonstrative understanding of a problem and what to do about but he did.
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No surprise to see Draconian measures being championed by the left.
Let’s ignore that the government are totally inept on the issue, that communication with communities and local councils are non existent. Let’s ignore a handful of companies are profiting 600m from this,…let’s ignore that we live in a democracy…
We’ll go after the far right who have caused all the issues we have despite polling at around 1%…
And anyone who doesn’t think as we tell them to will go up agin the wall.
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Yet more dismissal of reality from RTR.
Racists fighting with each other in Roscrea yesterday 
Are you for or against this wanton violence?
Good article.
Recently a false narrative has been circulating claiming that “Ireland is full”, and that we should no longer accept asylum seekers or give them shelter. Yet Ireland is neither socially nor spatially full. We have the means to accommodate more people – our growing population and new arrivals – provided we adapt our public policies to meet the needs and expectations of that increased population.
It is time to bring some perspective into the debate. Ireland’s population is now more than 5.2 million people, the highest number in 170 years. The 2022 census tells us that about 12 per cent is non-Irish so inward migration is now an important part of our population. The vast majority of recent arrivals have come legally to Ireland on work or study visas, making a vital contribution to our prosperity and wellbeing. In healthcare, for example, more than one-third of registered nurses and midwives are non-Irish, representing 117 nationalities.
Despite false information on social media, the number of asylum seekers is small, with just 13,600 applications in 2023. All applicants are photographed and fingerprinted, and go through a rigorous assessment of their claims. So we should be unequivocal: there are no “unvetted” people claiming asylum here.
Far from being a target destination, Ireland has been below the EU average in terms of numbers of asylum seekers for many years. In addition to our legal obligations, there is a compelling humanitarian case for helping asylum seekers.
This is not to say that there are not difficulties that need to be addressed. But these can be managed if we have the necessary political will.
The Government has committed to ending the system of direct provision, used to accommodate asylum seekers for more than 20 years. Over this period the State has depended entirely on the private sector to provide accommodation for those seeking international protection, and the limits of this approach were clearly reached some time ago.
The double impacts of Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have added to domestic pressures on housing, and are squeezing available short-term privately owned accommodation. The State is evidently no longer able to provide shelter to newly arrived asylum seekers and the High Court has found the State to be in breach of its legal obligations in not providing them with shelter.
Together with David Donoghue and Lorcan Sirr, I chair an External Advisory Group (EAG) advising Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman on these issues. We have recently submitted some clear recommendations on what should happen next.
As the pressures of war, politics and climate change continue to grow, it is clear that asylum seeking is not a temporary problem. Using the private sector solution is not a sustainable way forward either. Instead, we are recommending the use of State-owned reception and integration centres built on State land, using emergency powers if necessary. This would provide a long-term stock of temporary accommodation that would be outside the domestic, privately owned and social housing sectors. It would not be in competition with homeless services or private sector prospective purchasers.
Analysis suggests these centres should provide temporary accommodation for 10,000-15,000 asylum seekers while their applications are being processed.
housing shortage is uncomfortable but necessary. We are fortunate to live in a prosperous and peaceful country and are more than capable of treating people fleeing war and persecution decently. A State-owned accommodation system is now critical so that we treat asylum seekers with dignity, process their applications quickly, and provide them with temporary shelter while they await decisions on whether they should be allowed to remain to build new futures in Ireland.
Catherine Day is chairwoman of the external advisory group on ending direct provision
Fingerprints are taken for what purpose?
The International Protection Office (IPO) takes the asylum applicant’s fingerprints but, while they are checked against two databases, neither is a criminal database.
They are checked against Eurodac – which is an EU database that stores the fingerprints of international protection applicants or people who have crossed a border illegally.
For the purpose of establishing identity and if they have made an asylum application elsewhere.
Where’d you get that info from?
Irish refugee council says:
Their fingerprints are taken and checked on an international database (Eurodac) to establish if they have applied for asylum elsewhere in the EU. They will also be checked against Interpol and Europol databases. They are subject to a preliminary interview which asks questions about identity and nationality.
The department of justice supposedly said the above. That we only check Eurodac and haven’t been checking criminal databases.
I got the below from the far right chat group i am moderator of.
… information released by the Department of Justice has shown that no such checks against a criminal database are, in fact, carried out.
Security and safety fears have been raised repeatedly by local protesters, especially after it became known that thousands of those claiming to be asylum seekers had been allowed to enter the country without passports or documentation.
Protesters have been criticised for describing asylum seekers as “unvetted” persons. Now, information released to TDs Carol Nolan and Michael McNamara by the Department of Justice has provided clarity on the matter.
The International Protection Office (IPO) takes the asylum applicant’s fingerprints but, while they are checked against two databases, neither is a criminal database.
They are checked against Eurodac – but Eurodac “is an EU database that stores the fingerprints of international protection applicants or people who have crossed a border illegally.”
The Department of Justice is clear on this matter, confirming in its response to Deputy Nolan yesterday that “EURODAC is not a criminal records database”.
“However”, the Department adds, “the underpinning regulations permit law enforcement agencies to compare fingerprints linked to criminal investigations with those contained on EURODAC in certain circumstances involving serious criminal offences”. That would only happen as a “last resort” as per Eurodac.
Our analysis of Eurodac records, from 2015 until May 2023, shows that there have been zero instances in which the Irish authorities have used the Eurodac database “for the purpose of comparing fingerprint data sets in order to prevent, detect or investigate terrorist offences or other serious criminal offences”.
Not a single one.
So what about other databases? Nolan asked:” Are the applicant’s fingerprints checked against any other databases to see if they have a criminal record?”.
The Department revealed that checks are only made against the Schengen Information System (SIS) – which, again, is not a criminal database. SIS contains information about false documents or identification which has been captured by an EU member state or the Schengen associated countries (Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) – and also shares alerts about outstanding arrest warrants or vulnerable persons. It does not record a person’s criminal history or records.
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Good stuff. Would there be an expectation among your far right colleagues that many of these people would have a criminal record?
There’s always a few headbangers, you know yourself… But as one lad with a swastika on his forehead said to me, If Kyle Hayes can’t go to America after a bit of harmless handbags, then why shouldn’t we make sure the same vetting is being applied to Ireland?
It’s not a bad point.
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Because a criminal conviction may or may not be material to their claim for protection.
If a person has committed a serious crime in their country of origin, this can form a basis for having them ‘excluded’ from being declared a refugee or from gaining subsidiary protection status in the State. The process of examining their application decides that.
Say a person lands in from Syria Afghanistan and we call up Syria or the Taliban and they say that person is a criminal, send them back. Should we take that at face value, do you think?
I think you’re missing the point… We won’t be calling up anyone as we ain’t checking shit. Let’s at least pretend we are doing due diligence… And from the list @Batigol provided… Georgia and Algeria seem to be topping the list of those arriving …these countries should be able to verify and we should have no reason not to believe them. Other more continuous countries like you’ve mentioned will throw up different challenges but we should be at least doing our due diligence, which we’re not.
No, you’re missing the point. That due diligence as you call it is done during the process of examining and deciding on their application
Even if a person has a conviction, it may be irrelevant.
What is a more continuous country?
It’s an auto correct country…
You posted article citing rigorous background checks. It turns out we don’t do rigourous background checks.
We should do background checks.
I concede this isn’t always viable.
It doesn’t negate the fact we should.
No you’re completely wrong there.
Background checks are a major part of the process deciding on application. They’re probably the biggest part of it I’d say.
I hope that allays some of your concerns.