Tanaiste Micheál Martin has said that while people have concerns in relation to migration, no-one can “take the law into their own hands”.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs was speaking after a suspected arson attack on an empty hotel in Co Galway over the weekend, that was to house 70 asylum seekers from Thursday.
Mr Martin said the dramatic increase in the number of people seeking asylum in Ireland post-pandemic was a result of political instability around the world that would continue next year.
He said there was “no easy answers” as to how countries should deal with this, but said “cohesion” needed to be maintained in Ireland and that it would require “constant work”.
The Government agreed to limit State accommodation for Ukrainians from February amid a housing shortage and a surge in asylum seekers arriving in Ireland compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said he expected the number of Ukrainians arriving from next year to reduce as a result.
Mr Martin has said that while the increase in arrivals over a short space of time had been “very challenging”, he said Ireland needed to maintain its “cohesion”.
“In terms of (the Government’s) policies, they very much reflect our international obligations, both as members of the European Union and more broadly, in terms of international agreements and frameworks,” he said.
“And it is very, very challenging, in such a short space of time, to have so many people having to flee situations as they have in the last two years in particular, and there is no easy answers to this.
“I do accept the point that there is growing concerns, and outside of a particular sort of viewpoint, I think there are broader concerns, people are worried about capacity and so on, but on the other hand, I think we really have to be very clear on the fundamental principles that must apply.
“No-one can take the law onto their own hands. Blockading is wrong. Physically destroying buildings is obviously a crime.
“And we need as a society to maintain our cohesion and keep a balance and government has a role in terms of communicating those basic principles to the public, and working with people and engaging with people in respect of the broader question of migration.”
His comments come after the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said that of the 585 protests in the Dublin Metropolitan area this year, 227 were anti-immigration or relating to housing refugees.
While Mr Martin admitted that the Government needed to do better to address people’s fears, he said there were no reports of increases in crime in areas where there are direct provision centres housing asylum seekers.
He added that Brexit had offered a lesson on what happens when “knee-jerk” policies are pursued in response to a surge in migration, which could negatively affect the country and “not have any impact” on migration, which he said was “ultimately a function of how the world is working or not working”.
He said: “Other countries have made all sorts of political promises and declarations, which, when you analyse it in the cold light of day, haven’t been very effective or successful either.”
He said that broader migration policy would “require constant work” and said the Government had “tightened up checks” at airports over documents being destroyed and on cross-border entries.
He said that how to respond to an increase in migration was not “a unique Irish experience” and is part of a “global phenomenon”.
“I predict, in 2024, it will be a very dominant issue on the European Union agenda,” he added.
