Any notion that those who promote mass asylum migration to Ireland regard it as a short-term emergency is not keeping up. That is already apparent from the narrative of the political establishment across all of the Leinster House parties from government to opposition and is baldly stated by the NGO sector.
In its pre-budget submission the Irish Refugee Council place their demands for a massive increase in spending to facilitate those claiming to be asylum seekers in the context of a world in which the Irish state must “ensure appropriate reception conditions for increased numbers of international protection applicants in the coming decades. Reports state that between 216 million and 1.2 billion people will be forced to move “due to slow-onset climate impacts by 2050”.”
And if that was not a sufficient hint to you as to where all of this is leading, then they go on to point out that the impact of “slow-onset” climate change will mean that “Ireland will likely see an increase in international protection applications as a direct and indirect consequence of climate change in the coming decades.”
The weather must only have been shockingly bad in Georgia over the last few years which induced more than 5,000 Georgians- mostly young men if averages hold up- to flee biblical deluges, swarms of locusts and boiling tap water for the safety of Irish taxpayer-funded free digs.
For you see, of those 5,000 Georgian weather exiles, over 3,500 are still in IPAS accommodation. Probably too traumatised to move. Or fearful that the infamous Tbilisi Typhoon might have followed their raft made from tyres over the treacherous waters between their troubled homeland and Howth Harbour.
In fairness, the Irish Refugee Council does want them to move. Into a house built by the state or into private rental accommodation funded by increased housing supports. This is where we get to the meat of their budget submission.
It begins tamely enough before segueing into the overall demands of the other left liberal NGOs and political parties, but never losing sight of the fact that their priority remains their own client base of existing welfare immigrants alongside the basically unlimited numbers who will be packing their bags over the next while as the desert encroaches upon Cape Town or Lagos or Islington Borough.
To start off, they want for every family or child accompanied adult in Direct Provision to be given exactly the same entitlement to Child Benefit as Irish people and those proven to be legitimately here to work or fleeing the retro stuff that used to be cited as a reason to flee wherever you were before Climate Change became a thing. That would mean an extra €5.9 million for people in Direct Provision.
They would also benefit from a €26.6 million increase in their daily allowance, which the IRC at least recognises, sort of, is on top of not having to pay for their accommodation, food and more or less anything else other than a few pints or a new phone or whatever. That, however, only makes up the starters on the menu of demands.
The Refugee Council also wants the state to fund all sorts of other bodies including other NGOs in order to look after their client base. Named beneficiaries of this would include De Paul and the troubled McVerry Trust which has generously, and seemingly to its no doubt temporary financial cost, expanded from looking after hard cases on the Irish streets to the hard cases of the world.
The submission pitches their main, and mostly uncosted, demands within the context of broader references to the need to tackle the lack of housing. (Now, less clued in types such as myself and yourself might wonder if they ever make the connection between the unlimited numbers they wish to encourage to come to live here and all the shortages, but we do not see what they see. Clearly.)
So, in this tranche of demands we see calls for the state to build another 10,000 units of social housing each year, which would just about maybe cater for incoming asylum seekers. However, the real demand in the context of the Refugee Council campaign to move everyone out of Direct Provision is to build those houses for refugees – since they want to abolish DP and to move ALL of those who arrive here to apply for International Protection immediately into housing normally reserved for people proven to be legitimately here.
They are, however, realistic enough to accept that pending the election of a magic house building party of the real left as opposed to the default left (default in the absence of any single idea of their own on the part of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, seemingly) that “the recommended route to exit Direct Provision is to use HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) to access a private rental.” For the time being that would require an increase of €109 million in the HAP budget.
On top of that there will need to be 60 new local authority staff to hand out the keys for the free gaffs, more cash for the Approved Housing Bodies, ditto, free travel for lads deciding where they might like their free gaff to be, increased legal aid, and of course increased staffing and funding for the Legal aid Board.
And finally, just more unspecified “appropriate funding” for the Department of Justice to cope with the “increased numbers of international protection applicants in the coming decades. “Reports state that between 216 million and 1.2 billion people will be forced to move “due to slow-onset climate impacts by 2050.” Ireland will likely see an increase in protection applications as a direct consequence of climate change in the coming decades”.”
Yes, they did repeat themselves. Just in case you forgot. Not that you were ever asked if this is what you want for the country.
Oh, and before I forget, there would also need to be a new sinecure created for a ‘Refugee Response Director’ on a modest wage of €100,000 a year to oversee all the dispensing and channelling of the new free stuff.
Mmmm, now I wonder where they might find such a person? That will be a puzzler if the Government ever falls for it, and given what Ben discovered yesterday, it would surely be remiss of them not to. They are all, at the end of the day, in the same choir singing from the same score, written and conducted by the same people.
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