An Offaly TD has called for “full transparency” in regard to those making “millions” from “profiteering” on the provision of asylum accommodation in Ireland – adding that Ireland was following the “disastrous” path seen across Europe regarding the “increasing ghettoization of immigrant communities”.
Speaking to Gript today, Deputy Carol Nolan also said that there were towns in Ireland where a huge influx of migrants and refugees without consultation with communities had led to serious division in the area.
The Offaly TD had told Midland Radio today that “small numbers of people are profiteering” from providing IPAS services – and that “serious questions” needed to be asked about an estimated €5 million spend per day on asylum applicants, because this was taxpayers’ money which was being “thrown around like confetti”
She said that the some people were “becoming very, very wealthy” from the international protection system and that there were cases where properties had been sublet.
An analysis of payment to asylum accommodation providers by Matt Treacy on this platform showed that payments for the first six months of 2024 showed that the more than €2.1 billion paid out in 2023 will be surpassed this year. In contrast, in 2021 the total figure for the year was €186 million.
Deputy Nolan told Gript that “full transparency was not being delivered because many of those receiving payments were doing so through a labyrinth of companies, a structure that was perfectly legal but did not lend itself to taxpayers being easily informed”.
lso told Gript that unless the course of Ireland’s migration trajectory was changed “we are inevitably going to see a growth in what is often termed ‘parallel societies’ existing side by side with the majority Irish population”.
“The trajectory is clear. With a projected annual influx of 15-20,000 international protection applicants, Ireland is on course to replicate the disastrous and socially divisive experiences seen across the European continent with respect to the increasing ghettoisation of immigrant communities,” she said.
“What I mean by this is that we are inevitably going to see a growth in what is often termed ‘parallel societies’ existing side by side with the majority Irish population. No country of our size has demonstrated any meaningful success in terms of integrating tens of thousands of international protection applicants,” the Independent TD added.
“Large countries such as Germany and France have been struggling with this for years now. What hope is there that we will somehow, against all the odds, achieve a different outcome?
“I have yet to hear any credible rationale from Government that Irish communities will be immune from this phenomenon. I spoke today about Ballaghaderreen and what is happening there. It is a community with a population of 2,400, of which 39 per cent are foreign nationals. That kind of ratio points to enormous and almost irreconcilable difficulties regarding the likelihood of successful integration,” she added.
“The Government has to wake up. The EU has to wake up. If they do not, then we all suffer from the nightmare of social and cultural disintegration,” she said.
Deputy Nolan said that the issue of immigration and of the “failure of government policy” on the issue was coming up frequently on the doors during the election canvass.
Fine Gael have vowed to speed up the asylum processing process, saying they would also increase the number of failed applicants being deported.