It’s one of those videos that Ministers would probably rather didn’t resurface, mostly it speaks volumes about the absolutely reckless, ill-thought out, and utterly deluded, policy that was crafted in government buildings around migration.
Roderic O’Gorman’s absurd plans for an asylum system were lauded by the same people who shouted down anyone who thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad idea to offer free housing – and everything else – to anyone who rocked up to Ireland seeking asylum. Three years later, tents on the canal and the whole country busting at the seams in accommodation terms, would seem to suggest that those who raised concerns at the time were correct.
The video is a major exercise in virtue signalling, to be honest. The Green Party had made a “strong promise”. They were going to end direct provision. Putting human rights at the core of the new system was a priority.
A lot of NGO-type buzz words are dropped in: the party were promising a caring and person-centered approach, which would respect the dignity and human rights of asylum seekers.
But its when the Minister really gets down to the good stuff on offer that it becomes blindingly obvious what a pull factor all those promises made in February 2021 were.
Instead of direct provision we would have a system that “served the needs” of applicants and offered ‘wraparound supports’, the Minister tells the world. Amongst those supports would be adequate healthcare, English language supports, accommodation, and other supports to live “independently in Ireland.”
The Minister then goes on to expand on what accommodation would be offered to those who come here claiming to be asylum seekers. (Most who would arrive, as has been made clear from IPAS reports, were actually from countries like Georgia and Nigeria, which were not and are not experiencing war.)
After a maximum of four months, O’Gorman explains, migrants would be given community housing in twins and cities across the country along with supports to assist with integration – and that new accommodation provided would be either “own door or own room”.
“The right to privacy is absolutely key in all new accommodation, and accommodation in both phases will either be either own door or own room,” O’Gorman spells out.
What possessed the government to make these absurd promises and to send this message out to the world? Leaving aside the crisis in Ukraine, the Minister was excitedly advertising Ireland as the best small country to claim asylum at a time when the numbers of homeless Irish people had already been rocketing for years, when rents were soaring and housing was increasingly scarce, and our healthcare system was stumbling from one crisis to another.
Why did he tell prospective applicants – and, again, they are mostly economic migrants – that we could offer wraparound support and healthcare when the waiting lists in our hospitals were already dangerously long at that time, with Irish children unable to access scoliosis operations and mental health supports?
The promise of own door accommodation within four months in the new system met with considerable backlash on social media at the time, understandable given that some Irish people have been on housing lists for decades. But of course, for those hearing this message through one channel or another Ireland must have seemed like the proverbial land of milk and honey.
This graph from today’s IPAS report shows the alarming extent of the huge surge in numbers which started to rocket around the time that word was surely getting out about the generosity of the Irish system. It was entirely and absolute foreseeable, of course, but not, apparently, to the small army of government advisers who are paid six-figure sums to steer legislators.
The NGOs who have supported and facilitated this madness, in the face of all the evidence that it would be dangerous and harmful, should be defunded. They have failed both the migrants they claim to represent and the taxpayers who fund them to the hilt.
Amongst much else that was promised was the vow that the new system would rely on a not-for-profit approach. Given the billions paid to companies, including those backed by foreign investment funds, to provide emergency accommodation during the crisis, that’s now just another promise that now rings very hollow indeed.
In the video from 2021, Roderic O’Gorman said that the Direct Provision system had “spiralled out of control”. Its very obvious that the same description could apply to the chaos and anger this reckless immigration system has caused.
Yet his fallback justification remains that Ireland can’t have a cap on migrants and that we need to live up to “international obligations”, even as the rest of Europe is looking for common sense solutions to crisis. Don’t expect an apology from this Minister or a change in attitude anytime soon.
In 2022 Darragh O'Brien accused Carol Nolan of undermining "social cohesion" because she warned that his government's 'no cap' asylum policy would lead to crisis.
Asked if Nolan now deserved an apology, Roderic O'Gorman said: "I certainly don't think she's owed an apology, no." pic.twitter.com/8qYHzW8XZO
— gript (@griptmedia) May 15, 2024
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