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JUSTICE MINISTER CHARLIE Flanagan has said that “improvements” to the Direct Provision system are necessary but that he “doesn’t want to see people on the streets”.
The minister was speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime amid questions about the government’s role in informing communities about the opening of Direct Provision centres.
Flanagan said there has been “no decision” about the potential for a DP centre in Oughterard, Co Galway but that “expressions of interest are ongoing”.
The minister previously stated that he was “very disappointed” at recent remarks made about the process and he again called on Noel Grealish TD to withdraw remarks he made.
Flanagan acknowledged that community concerns about Direct Provision centres must be listened to.
“In all cases it’s important that information be provided on the matter of education facilities and schools, school places. Teachers are concerned, parents are concerned. GPs and healthcare, of course, is an issue of fundamental importance to people,” he said.
And how is the healthcare service to be delivered in any area, the matter of public transport, to and from the centre, to and from the local community? And, of course, the important issue of sport and recreation.
He added that some people agitating against the centres are opposed to immigration as a concept and are not speaking for local communities.
“I believe it’s important that such demonstrations take place in an atmosphere of calm. I am concerned that many of these issues, where there are challenges, are being whipped up by people who have ulterior motives, people who are against the concept of allowing any asylum seekers into our country.”
Unfair
Flanagan also said he is aware that there are people who are “implacably opposed” to the Direct Provision system and said “a balance” is required.
“We have a situation where on the one hand, we have a group of people who are implacably opposed to the concept of Direct Provisions for reasons they say that it’s no way to keep people’s, that it’s unfair. And on the other hand people who just don’t want asylum seekers in the community, what we have to do is to find a balance, and that’s why there are improvements to the current system.”
Ireland is no different from any other EU country or any other western-type democracy in the manner in which we deal with people coming from the most vulnerable circumstances.
Flanagan acknowledged that there was “a crisis” in providing accomodation to people arriving into the country.
“I have in excess of 1,300 people in emergency accommodation. I would hope that these applications would be dealt with as expeditiously as possible but we can have on some days 40-50 people coming to our shores. I don’t want to see these people on our streets,” he said.
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Wow. What a thorough and an informative article, great to see The Journal are tackling the hard hitting cornerstones of the current Irish political situation.
Whatever they’re paying you Hugh, it isn’t enough.
Ah Cillian leave Hugh alone .. It’s Christmas Eve ..
But yet you are here
I’m here too attracted by the banality of the headline and the dropping standards of journalism is astounding. The article did mention that Willie cannot wear glasses no matter how bad his sight might get because he will look even more like Groucho.
You mean the tache nearly got rid of Willie
God knows what’s living in it, what ever it is it probably has a brain, that’s one up on Willie.
Ah Willie … The same fool who sat at the top table as Bertie and the all sorts when they drove the country into a wall, costing every man , woman and unborn child tens of thousands of € each… But hey he has a moustache !
And this is news????
Eh where’s the rest of my comment????
Wow has everyone at journal towers clocked off for the Christmas already?
Looks that way !
Not everyone: those employed under jobridge to red thumb stuff that is critical of them are still there.
I thought the story was going to be about how he almost lost it in the settlement to Maurice Quinlivan have he was found by the courts to have lied and slandered him on the radio down there.
That’s some bush Big Willy
Considering what he says under oath can’t be believed.
A politician wearing facial hair can’t be called a bare faced liar!
Here I was thinking, nothing could trump the tulamore air disaster of 1785 article
Great promotional stuff there. What’s next? Maybe a story on how joan Burton has embraced social media! Or will we get an enda mitty story from the front line of war! Or an emotional Kelly telling us it all matters so much to him (his political career, that is).
Slow news day
And then there’s your life – going around commenting on slow news. It must suck.
I prefer the alternative name for a tache: cock duster
Sure the dogs in the street knew that!,
Hitler had to put down for humane reasons — maybe just maybe it is time for both willie and his dirty facial hair to retire.
It’s a manky tasche. It looks like an old sweeping brush, long relegated to sweeping outside footpaths.
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