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The government has been accused of making a “shanty town” of asylum applicants living in tents on Mount Street, and causing a “permanent blight” on Dublin city, after portaloos were installed in the area.
Dr Kevin Byrne, who is the chair of South Georgian Core Residents Association, said that “despite the objection of residents, Government has now installed portaloos for the #ShantyTown risking making it a permanent blight on our city.”
He described the situation as “madness”, and said that “while Mount Street is ground zero, asylum seeker tents are now popping up across the city centre.”
“No one [is] in charge,” he added.
Dr Byrne, who sits on the Dublin City Council committee as a representative of the Dublin City Public Partipation Network, previously told a Council meeting that “this is a situation created by the action and inaction of Government and needs to be dealt with at that level.”
Week 59: Despite the objection of residents Government has now installed portaloos for the #ShantyTown risking making it a permanent blight on our city. Madness. And while Mount Street is ground zero asylum seeker tents are now popping up across the city centre. No one in charge. pic.twitter.com/EC4Bji500K
— Kevin Byrne (@drkevinbyrne) April 23, 2024
At that meeting he said that he understood the instinct to look at bringing emergency-type sanitation interventions to Lower Mount Street, but asserted that the area was not the appropriate place for a “tent encampment”.
“If we need emergency measures we should be looking at land the state owns where emergency tents can be camped and basic sanitation provided if we need an emergency response – which we obviously do now,” he said.
Several weeks ago a local resident spoke to RTÉ’s Drivetime on the situation where she said that people living on the ground floor near the encampment had experienced tents being tied to their bedroom window. She said it was becoming increasingly tense in the area, and that the situation was “appalling” with the area “rapidly becoming a shanty town”.
However, on the same programme, Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council said that he had written to the the Chief Executive of Dublin City Council asking for portaloos to be put in place in Mount Street.
Some 20 local residents had also written a letter to the Irish Times saying that “amid all the coverage of the plight of asylum seekers living in tents around Mount Street in Dublin, there has been an almost complete lack of discussion about the effects of this encampment on the residents of the area.”
“While we are obviously sympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers, and support the provision of a more stable situation, the current policy of turning a blind eye to the residents most affected by the crisis is not a solution,” they said.
“As residents of Madison Court, Grattan Hall and Grattan Court East, we have experienced our neighbourhood, and our living conditions, deteriorate drastically over the last couple of months. Our buildings are encircled by tents to the extent that people on the ground floor cannot put their hand outside their window without touching a tent,” they said.
“Litter, food waste, piles of rubbish, sleeping bags and discarded tents are constantly blown around our street and into our doorways. People urinate at our gate as we enter our building and the noise means that we cannot open our windows and, even then, many residents cannot sleep at night because of the noise.”
“We have been met with silence when we have contacted the authorities for assistance. Gardaí in the area say they have been told to do nothing about it. Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman’s office is uncontactable: emails are unanswered and his office “does not take calls”.
“Dublin City Council say it is nothing to do with it, as does the International Protection Office.”
“It is shocking that we appear to have no rights or recourse in this situation and that the law is not being enforced. The brief respite we experienced when Crooksling in Co Wicklow opened is over, and the tents have returned. It appears that the authorities are going to allow the same squalor to develop again. Can anyone set up tents wherever they wish? What happens to the residents and businesses of this neighbourhood?” they asked.
In a previous article for Independent.ie, Dr Byrne wrote that “as a proud resident of Dublin city centre I am appalled to see how the Government’s failed migration policy is disfiguring our nation’s capital.”
This policy failure has created a large tent encampment of International Protection Applicants (IPAs) around the International Protection Office (IPO) on Lower Mount Street for the third time in 12 months, leading to a humanitarian crisis for the 170 men there and an intolerable situation for local residents and businesses.
People are now avoiding the area and businesses are at risk of closure because it is such a struggle for them to stay trading with what is around them. Local residents are sympathetic with the men in the tent encampments and have tried to live with this situation, but this has gone on for over a year now and people’s patience can only go so far.
There was some strong reaction to the appearance of the portaloos online, with some people arguing that the move facilitated an “illegal encampment” or should be dismantled – while others said that the government was failing to meet its international obligations towards asylum seekers.
One activist said that: “if anyone was interested, you could write to the Dublin City Manager – customerservices@dublincity.ie – to at the very least insist that @DubCityCouncil provide skips for rubbish and portaloos. Immediately.”
If anyone was interested, you could write to the Dublin City Manager – customerservices@dublincity.ie – to at the very least insist that @DubCityCouncil provide skips for rubbish and portaloos. Immediately.
That isn't too much to ask.#MountStreet @IrishRefugeeCo https://t.co/cCOvgIZFQ6
— Brian Sheehan (@BrianSheeh) March 12, 2024
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) has said that the organisation would collect waste in Mount Street and assist where possible but that accommodation for asylum seekers falls outside the remit of the DRHE, and is the responsibility of the Department of Integration.
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