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NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS are being asked to assist asylum seekers living in hotels and B&Bs around Ireland.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice & Equality, it now requires a “Cultural Liaison Service” to help people living in emergency accommodation and has issued a tender for NGO services. It says it needs this service in place “as soon as possible”.
The department’s Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) is currently under pressure, according to a department spokesperson.
As a result, RIA requires the chosen NGO to hold clinics at hotels and B&Bs, provide assistance with obtaining medical cards as well as bringing individual cases of concern to the attention of RIA.
According to the department spokesperson: “RIA is in the process of contracting in a Cultural Liaison Service and we will be able to comment further when that process is complete.”
Since September, RIA has accommodated people in hotels and B&Bs due to capacity issues in Direct Provision centres.
There are now 777 people living in emergency set-ups in 25 counties around Ireland. The department has paid nearly €7 million to private business owners running hotels and B&Bs in that time.
“As our accommodation centres are currently operating at full capacity, the Department put out a nation-wide call seeking bed and board in hotels and guesthouses on a 12-26 week basis for emergency temporary accommodation for international protection applications,” a spokesperson for the department told TheJournal.ie.
People living in these centres have experienced a lack of service provision and have raised these issues with RIA.
According to a spokesperson for the Ombudsman’s Office – which is charged with examining complaints from people about public bodies and has visited Direct Provision centres since 2017 – “people in emergency accommodation tell us that they are experiencing difficulty accessing public services.”
‘Address residents concerns’
A number of issues highlighted by residents so far include difficulties accessing GP services, delays in PPS numbers being allocated in order to receive their weekly payment, a lack of educational access for children and unsuitable accommodation.
MASI (Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland) has received a number of queries and complaints from people living in these emergency set-ups.
In June, a number of people living at a hotel in Co Cavan complained to RIA about the type of food being served at the hotel and of having no access to GP services.
They complained that some residents have had no access to medical cards for more than eight months and that local GP practices wouldn’t accept them as patients without medical cards.
Some residents have also been living at the centre for over nine months despite others being transferred from emergency accommodation to more permanent Direct Provision centres.
The NGO chosen to provide this cultural liaison service, according to the department, will support RIA “in order to address the concerns and issues of residents in emergency accommodation.”
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Strangely, I do not see the home of these nuns as hoarding of land. It is their home and gardens and as they seldom venture beyond it’s walls then yes it is their garden for enjoyment. Do we really need to have blocks of apartments everywhere, are there no green spaces to be left? The green party only this week suggested we need these spaces to prevent flooding as large urban sprawl is contributing to flooding. Are all residential homes including nursing homes to be denied the necessity of gardens to allow residents some respite , there is no going back once the blocks of apartments are built but we need these green spaces , we will be sorry when they are gone.
@Eileen Kelly: we’ll just ignore the fact that we’ve needed housing badly for the last ten years and it’s only getting worse
@Martin Mongan: Perhaps what is really ignored is that the FGFF government did away with building social housing by the councils and focussed on private development to meet this need when it was apparent that this would not work. No point in blaming those with properties that were swallowed up with urban sprawl, most of these properties were in the ‘country’ so to speak 50 years ago, just look at all the farmland that has disappeared in north and south Dublin. Nothing but development in north Dublin, all the glasshouses , fruit fields and market gardens are gone. People need green spaces as well as housing, one should not be at the expense of the other, proper planning is needed.
@Eileen Kelly: We need thousands of apartments in urban areas with all the services urban areas can provide like, water, electricity, parks, amenities, schools, public transport etc. Basically if everyone lives in the countryside then the countryside doesn’t exist anymore. Suburbs and one off houses have ruined this country and it’s one of the reasons both houses, transport and all our services are so ridiculously expensive here compared to every other EU country. 66.5% of Spanish live in apartments compared to just 6% of Irish people.
@Maurice F Glennon: We are getting thousands of apartments, you should visit Airton rd/Belgard rd and see the massive apartment blocks that are coming to fruition, across the road the land is zoned for more apartments the length of the street. Behind these premises the Cookstown area is also zoned for apartments but there are no plans for new schools or facilities to balance this development. In Clondalkin/Lucan a whole new town is being built Clonburris which will house in excess of 23,000 people. Everywhere you look , you see apartment blocks but we still need green spaces and infrastructure , there is only one line for the luas track into Dublin city and one line out. All these apartment blocks will simply add to overcrowded amenities which host communities have developed over decades due to bad planning and neglect by councils and locating all development largely in Clondalkin/Tallaght /Finglas .
@Eileen Kelly: I’m sorry but this is exactly the sort of thing this tax was brought in for. Things change especially in a city. There is no one stopping them leaving their land to avail of everything else in the vicinity. The best thing they can do is change that address from Blackrock to Still organ because let’s face it nothing on that side of N11 is Blackrock. That should knock a few million off the site, 3% of less.
@TheGood Feign: Why should anyone have to leave their home because of taxation, forcing people out of the only life they know. Change is not always for the better and no one should be taxed out of their home. I very much doubt the hoarding tax was to be applied to residences with large gardens, really….bad enough they put a tax on our homes after paying tax , stamp duty and mortgages, tax on tax on tax.
The Catholic church is the biggest landowner on the planet and has the biggest private art collection in the world. They’ll have no problem helping their “sisters” out I’m sure
@Art Vandelay: actually King Charles is ;-)
@Jason Ebbs: You are correct, Charles and the royal family own 6.6 billion acres of land.
@Art Vandelay: the Vatican won’t give a cent, they just take
Carmelite? Are they like regular Carmels, but just less fattening?
@William Tallon: Brilliant comment
It seems like a nasty, mean decision.
The nuns have some green space to walk around and enjoy a bit of tranquility.
But all the spiritually bereft people in An Bord Pleanala can see is housing potential.
@Nestor: 4 nuns, probably all quite elderly and not walking a huge amount.
Good. No reason why they should be exempted.
Good old journal, always opened for the church and religion bashing comments
I did know one girl who was put there by her parents in early 80,s.it was a one stop shop. No coming out, vows of silence, no access to outside world. Maybe its different now but then it sounded horrific.
What about the families that own thousands of acres of Irish land. Does nobody ask them to give up a few hundred acres for social housing. No blame the Catholic church for all of Irelands ills
@: The church owns so much land because of all the taxes Irish people had to pay to it over the centuries and because they emotionally blackmailed people with assets into leaving them to it so they could go to heaven. That’s a scam.
An Bord Pleanala are nothing only a shower of w anchors
@Mary Toilet: Have you been disinfected lately? You’re certainly clean round the bend.
Just do an audit of the current social housing stock and you’ll find a huge percentage of the properties suitable for families occupied by an individual. Social housing can’t be an intergenerational cheap house forever, it doesn’t make sense.
If they pay the hoarding tax, the land will still not be available for development. How much land is involved anyway? I could build a house in my garden. Could I also be liable for hoarding tax?
Tax the Church!
@Frodo Rui: in order to do that you would have to remove the tax exemption of all charities as it would be unconstitutional to tax one of them.
@Brendan Greene: @Brendan Greene: Not necessarily.
Just applying to be a charity should not automatically grant the right to charitable status.
Creation of criteria that charities must meet could be used to remove charitable status from some bodies/institutions.
Treat them to some time in the real world while you’re at it.
Cpo and send them back to rome where they belong
The Irish State should confiscate all churches, schools and lands.
Irish citizens have paid for them multiple times over centuries.
Some of the land could be used to build social housing and any sold for private use should fund the victims of church abuse.
@Pat the Baker: I think there is a case to put a lien on all Church property, and when the current occupiers die off the property reverts to the state.
It all came from the people anyway.
The Curch should have all their Iirsh assets frozen, they then should then be sold to pay for the mother-baby atrocities. Time they were gone.
@Thesaltyurchin: You should do a spellcheck before posting a comment!
Wonder if there’s Skeletons there !
@Jimmy Wallace: This is the main point I keep making about this situation how on earth have they not even threatened this action when they refuse to pay reparations for the barbaric treatment they dished out to so many on this island?.. utterly ridiculous
have your say