Harris says he’s pleased with gardai that they have the resources to police concerned citizens protesting migrants – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Harris says he’s pleased with gardai that they have the resources to police concerned citizens protesting migrants




Justice Minister Simon Harris said he was pleased with the assurances from Garda Commissioner Drew Harris that he had the staff and resources to police protests over asylum seekers.

Minister Harris and Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman are due to meet Commissioner Harris this afternoon to discuss the police response – particularly in light of last Friday’s fire of asylum seeker tents at a transfer camp on Sandwith Street.

Outside Government House, Mr Harris said there was no doubt that Lake Garda will need significant resources given that there have been 125 anti-immigration protests in the capital so far this year.

Justice Secretary Simon Harris and Minister for Children and Inclusion Roderic O’Gorman are today to speak with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris about last weekend’s attack on a converted camp for asylum seekers in south Dublin.

For 502 asylum seekers, the state is currently unable to provide shelter, so they have to sleep outside.

The commissioner said it maintains “operational integrity” – meaning the staff and resources to deal with the problem. However, Gardaí Rank and Poe say that policing is very difficult, reports RTE.

However, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said public officials in the Dublin North East constituency had been aware of plans to provide a place for asylum seekers at the Airways Industrial Estate for at least four weeks.

The Taoiseach said the government has a responsibility to reach out to communities about housing asylum seekers and take their concerns “seriously.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne, Mr Varadkar said he would be speaking to Ministers Harris and O’Gorman tonight about the situation in Co Clare but added: “The blockade in Inch should end”, reports RTE.

About 100,000 people came to Ireland last year, he said, most of them from Ukraine, but more than 10,000 came from other parts of the world.

The leader of the Labor Party has urged Oireachtas members to be careful about their language around refugee shelters.

Ivana Bacik warned that “calls for consultation can suggest that communities have a veto over who moves in. And that isn’t right”, reports RTE.

She said she was “very concerned to see the unacceptable protests and blockades against refugee accommodation in Inch, Co Clare. I think we’re better than that”, reports RTE.

She warned that calls for consultation “can even offer a platform to those who will never welcome inward migration here. To those with a much more sinister agenda on the far-right. We have to be very careful in our calls. Information is very welcome. But consultation suggests a veto and that’s not right,” reports RTE.

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