Tánaiste pours cold water on Barracks rumours
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said there are no plans by government to increase the number of asylum seekers living in tents at Columb Barracks.
Speaking in Mullingar last Friday, the Defence Minister said Thornton Hall in north Dublin is the only other site in Ireland being considered for humanitarian accommodation.
It follows a story in the Irish Independent last week that claimed a ‘secret memo’ they obtained showed plans to move around 200 more asylum seekers to Columb Barracks.
The facility is currently home to around 100 asylum seekers in tented accommodation and 100 Ukrainians in modular housing units.
The Tánaiste wouldn’t rule out whether capacity could be increased at the barracks in the future. “The only decision made has been in respective of Thornton Hall, to get that facility ready for tented accommodation initially,” he said.
“We need to see how that works out before there’s an expansion in any other locations.
“There will be issues around whether we can change from tents to better facilities, but no decisions have been taken in respect of any further sites or expansions.”
Regarding last week’s story about the barracks, the Fianna Fáil leader said: “Not all the information was correct.”
“Or the interpretation, but our immediate attention is on Thornton Hall, as to what can be done with state-owned sites.”
The Tánaiste noted the current level of migration to Ireland is unprecedented.
“If you take 2019, there were about 3,500 who came into the country seeking asylum; post-Covid that has increased dramatically,” he said.
"Last year there were 13,500 and there will be over 20,000 this year; that’s not counting the over 100,000 Ukrainians who came into the country at different stages fleeing war from Putin.
“That’s down to 80,000 now, over 20,000 have either moved on or returned to Ukraine – that’s the context.”
Local election
The Fianna Fáil leader said they would be happy to return the party’s nine sitting councillors in this week’s election and are not expecting to gain seats.
“We will be trying to hold what we have,” he said. “If we can gain additional seats, fine, but it will be challenging.
“We did very well on the last occasion and want to hold on to our councillors. We have very strong councillors here so hopefully we can do that.”
The Tánaiste said his party are being received positively on the campaign trail this election season.
“From knocking at doors, there is a range of issues coming up, like local issues, footpaths, maintenance and those kinds of things,” he said.
“Housing is an ongoing issue for people; we’re working hard to change momentum and we’ve done that by building more houses in the last three years than the previous eight or nine – but we need to do more.
“We have found that our outgoing councillors working in communities are getting a good response.
“People appreciate hard-working councillors who service their communities well and that is coming across on the doors to us.”