Security at centres housing international protection applicants is to be reviewed following a suspected arson attack on a property in Drogheda over the weekend.
Four children and an adult had to be rescued from the top floor of the building which was being used by the International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) on George’s Street in the town on Friday night, while 23 others were relocated to alternative accommodation.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio on Sunday, Minister of State for Integration Colm Brophy condemned the incident and recent violence at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel which also houses international protection applicants alongside those who have fled the war in Ukraine.
“We must make sure ... and I’ve already been talking to officials in the Department [of Justice] in relation to this, that we look at security in relation to all Ipas facilities.”
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Mr Brophy said people resident in the facilities were living their lives, including women and children, and that “their safety must be of utmost concern”.
He said he wanted to see a review conducted “as speedily as possible”.
“We have a duty of care to those people, and we must ensure that duty of care is upheld,” the Dublin South West TD said.
An accelerant was used to deliberately start the Drogheda fire, gardaí believe. Some of the rescued children, including a 20-day-old and a 17-month-old, were taken to hospital for assessment.
The incident has been widely condemned in the community and by leading political figures. Mr Brophy described it as “truly shocking”.
“Somebody [was] deliberately choosing to put an accelerant on to a stairway, which would have serious implications for people trying to get out of the building. It’s a truly shocking crime that we’re talking about,” he said, adding that the “full rigours” of the gardaí should be deployed and that serious consequences would follow for the “perpetrators of such a heinous attack”.
Mr Brophy defended the Government’s record on migration, arguing that reforms it had brought in would make for a firmer, fairer and more effective system.
The Department of Justice is aiming to reduce the time for a first-instance decision on asylum applications to 12 weeks, in line with targets under the EU migration pact.
He also referenced plans being worked on to ensure those IP applicants who have the right to work make a contribution to the cost of their accommodation.
Earlier this week, Mr Brophy’s party leader, Tánaiste Simon Harris, said immigration to Ireland was “too high”, in comments that prompted criticism from some in opposition – including the Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon, who said he was “cynically trying to blame vulnerable people”.
Mr Brophy said that was a “ludicrous” allegation.
“When serious politicians like the Tánaiste – who have at their heart the desire to make the system work and want to make it work – make any type of judgment call or comment, they are then lumped into extremism or they a targeted with that brush,” he said.
He said this made it “incredibly difficult” to have a meaningful discussion around migration and integration.
