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Racism allegations at Cork University Hospital described as “misinterpretations” as further claims reported

by admin 18 December, 2023

By Conor O’Carroll. Further allegations of racism have been made by nurses undertaking the adaptation programme at Cork University Hospital (CUH) following attempts by management to categorise previous allegations as “misinterpretations”. Responding to a review of the adaption programme conducted by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI), a CUH report obtained by Village claimed “shock and dismay” at the accusations that had been made by 29 nurses in a group letter. The nurses also stated that “much time and effort has been expended since training to analyse what situations or incidents were misinterpreted in such a way”. The Journal previously reported that humiliating and derogatory comments were made towards Indian nurses at the hospital while they completed the adaptation programme that assesses their competency before becoming a registered nurse in Ireland. The nurses claimed they were subjected to racist remarks by a staff member involved with the adaptation programme. Documents obtained by Village suggest that racist language is still present within the programme at CUH They allege the derogatory comments made towards them included statements that “Indians come to Ireland only to make money”, and that they “kill Irish patients”. The staff member is also alleged to have said “Indian nurses spread Covid”, that “Indian nurses make toilets dirty” and that “they do not wash hands after finishing”. The group letter also claims the staff member “threatened new nurses for joining unions” and from the first day of the programme made the nurses regret their decision to come to Ireland. A review of the adaptation programme at CUH by the NMBI around the same time as the allegations found concerns about the treatment of nurses from abroad. The review, seen by Village, suggested that staff on the programme were “tough” on candidates and that “harsh” language was sometimes used. Interviewees also told the NMBI inspectors that they wished for the “classroom to be nicer to overseas nurses”. When the allegations of racism made in the group letter were put to an unnamed staff member on the programme, they claimed “they had never heard racism mentioned about the programme” and said that “all candidates were treated equally” and “did not agree that there was any racism in the classroom or on the programme”. A spokesperson for the NMBI told Village “[the] NMBI continues to actively engage with CUH and has received assurances in relation to improvements to the delivery of their adaptation programme. Our Fitness to Practise department deals with complaints and we do not comment on any ongoing matters”. Responding to the findings of the review, the CUH report claimed that “increased awareness now exists and every effort is been [sic] taken to avoid possible misinterpretations”. These efforts included the introduction of anonymous feedback forms for nurses on the adaptation programme and an action plan to tackle to concerns raised. Further allegations of racism have been made by nurses undertaking the adaptation programme at Cork University Hospital (CUH) following attempts by management to categorise previous allegations as “misinterpretations” However, documents obtained by Village suggest that racist language is still present within the programme at CUH. An amalgamation of the course feedback surveys proposed by CUH highlighted further allegations of racism towards nurses on the course. Nurses were asked four questions in the survey, covering aspects such as whether the course met their needs, whether parts of the course could be eliminated or expanded, and any suggestions they had about the course. They were also invited to offer comments on their answers. From a report of these surveys dated September 2023, one comment asked for the programme to “avoid racist talks” and to not be “judgemental without knowing them correctly [sic]”. It is unclear whether any further formal complaints have been made following the group letter. CUH has also established an oversight group as part of its action plan to “provide oversight, guidance and governance to the general nurse overseas adaptation programme”. The oversight group’s terms of reference do not specifically refer to allegations of racism, but instead aim to “review the internal and external communication processes associated with the adaptation programme”. CUH said “Cork University Hospital welcomes and benefits from a very diverse workforce and has a responsive international recruitment plan to support service needs. The hospital continues to improve their adaptation programme and has recruited a senior manager with responsibility for the welfare of the candidates and delivery of the programme”. “The Hospital Human Resource Department manages any issues of concern that are raised and does not comment on individual cases”, a spokesperson for CUH continued.

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Irish Times accused of greenwashing over sponsored article

by admin 13 December, 2023

By Conor O’Carroll The Irish Times has been accused of “greenwashing” by an environmental group, in a complaint to the Press Ombudsman. Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), has accused the Irish Times of failing to meet its responsibility to maintain truth and accuracy under Principle 1 of the Code of Practice for Irish Newspapers and Periodicals. its complaint relates to an image used in an article to promote Silver Hill Duck, saying it “constitutes an act of greenwashing as it inaccurately portrays the reality of Silver Hill Duck’s operations”. The article in question was produced by the Irish Times‘ Content Studio, a commercial-editorial unit at the paper which provides sponsored content for its readers. “The greenwashing is part of the organisation’s portrayal of itself as environmentally friendly” during the planning process, the complaint continues It showcases a number of Irish companies and their international operations contributing to “Ireland’s export success story” and prominently features an image of several ducks standing on some grass while, Micheál Briody, CEO of Silver Hill Farm, poses behind them. In the complaint to the Press Ombudsman, FIE says the “photograph’s backdrop, depicting a tranquil rural scene with ducks freely roaming on grass, does not align with the true conditions within the Silver Hill Duck facility today”. FIE alleges that the ducks used by Silver Hill Duck are “intensively farmed ducks and never have the opportunity to experience natural conditions, including sunlight or grass”, and that “neither at Silver Hill Duck nor at their suppliers are the ducks raised in free-range conditions”. An online brochure on Silver Hill Duck’s website states that ducks are “free roaming and fed a natural diet”, while the website also says: “All aspects of our duck production are owned and controlled by Silver Hill Duck, from breeding, egg production, hatching and selection, to processing, cooking and packaging”. After the company was purchased by a Northern Irish co-operative, Fane Valley, in 2019, duck rearing on-site was reduced and eventually stopped altogether. Now, ducks are reared externally by contractors and brought to the site for slaughter. The complaint relates to an image used in an article to promote Silver Hill Duck, saying it “constitutes an act of greenwashing as it inaccurately portrays the reality of Silver Hill Duck’s operations” Village has contacted Silver Hill Duck for comment. The Irish Times article also refers to a planning application submitted by Silver Hill Duck seeking to expand its facility and increase its production from 80,000 to 120,000 ducks a week. Permission was granted by Monaghan County Council in March this year, but the decision has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála. FIE’s complaint alleges this “misrepresentation in Ireland’s newspaper of record, which inaccurately portrays Silver Hill Duck as practising free-range rearing, will directly impact on the public’s perception of this contentious planning application”. “The greenwashing is part of the organisation’s portrayal of itself as environmentally friendly” during the planning process, the complaint continues. The Irish Times has previously removed sponsored content featuring Land Rover and four brand ambassadors, including RTÉ’s Kathryn Thomas, following complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI). In considering a complaint related to the Land Rover campaign, the ASAI said that no evidence had been produced to show how driving a Land Rover would lead to a more sustainable lifestyle. The Irish Times has been contacted for comment.

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“But to be forgotten is to die a second time”: when home was the cockpit of the Troubles

by Village 8 December, 2023

Lawyer Christopher Stanley reviews the eloquent and beautiful ‘Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place’, by Martin Doyle. The peace process in Northern Ireland which has followed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 is best seen as transitional. During this transition, reconciliation requires a consensus of the voices of the dead being spoken through the loss and grief of their loved ones and through other sympathetic interlocutors. This is what Martin Doyle, currently Books Editor of the Irish Times, accomplishes in ‘Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place’. The violent deaths Doyle describes and the loss and grief he seeks to give expression to belong to his family and neighbours. Those who are left endow him and enable him, because he understands their person and place, to become their voices through his “speech marks”. Doyle’s project is “polyphonic work, communicating different perspectives through many voices” (page 15). He reminds us – and those who seek to impose silence – that those who suffered a violent death by bomb or bullet and their loved ones will not, should not and cannot be silenced. This includes those ‘own’ lost lives – the victims of suicide and their families – unable to bear the grief of violent loss. Doyle draws upon the Anglo-Irish cultural theorist Benedict Anderson: “The dead, far from being gone, remain as a powerful part of the community. How we think about the dead, and the stories we tell about the relation between the dead and the living, are central to imagining new forms of community and/or narratives of nationhood” (‘Imagined Communities’(1983) page 15). This is a compelling, eloquent, at times beautiful and vital account. It is a needful telling of a narrative — of the families, their lost loved ones, of neighbours in conflict, of fractured communities failing to reconcile deep-rooted religious, sectarian, and economic divisions upon The Narrow Ground, described by a well disposed Sir Walter Scott in 1825 as the space in which “envenomed” Irish factions did their battle “like people fighting with daggers in a hogshead”. It is part of the competing allegedly pernicious counter-narratives to that which the British State seeks to coerce and cleanse as the ‘official account’ for the ‘public record’. Doyle’s book assumes its rightful place – and at the right time – amid the literature of the Conflict most recently supplemented (as acknowledged by Doyle) in works by Anne Cadwallader, Ian Cobain, and Margaret Urwin, in poetry and in prose and in compelling academic contributions including Mark McGovern’s ‘Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland’ (2019). What distinguishes Doyle’s book is clear from its subtitle, The Troubles in My Home Place. This is an autobiography and a biography. It is about the life of the author and about his place and his home. His sense of place – his home returned to – is acute because he understands what has led to both the physical and psychological landscape that historically surrounds and embraces, but also excludes and expels, his community. This is both the inner landscape – the psyche – of emotions, beliefs, ideologies – violently moulded by economic, religious and political forces, religious intolerances and political exigencies and the shattered outer-world reality – The Troubles as ‘a little local difficulty’ upon a Narrow Ground. Doyle’s Narrow Ground is a handful of rural parishes – the “Murder Triangle’ of Newry, Lurgan and Dungannon ‘ the cockpit of the Troubles” (page 7). It is also the landscape as a bloody signification of a violent Conflict across the Island of Ireland, from Claudy to Banbridge to Belturbet, from Derry to Omagh, from Enniskllen to Dublin, from city to city, town to town, village to village, graveyard to graveyard. Doyle has not written the history of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Doyle has written a history of the Conflict in Northern Ireland in his part of Ireland – the village of Laurencetown, 25 miles north of the border, in the County Down parish of Tullylish, within the murder triangle (“or Lawrencetown – we can’t even agree on how to spell it” (page 1)). It is his-story about aspects of his life, his space-place, his family, the family next door, his school and their church, a social club and their sports venue, his community and all its graveyards and memorial stones. Because he writes of what and where he knows, Doyle can listen, record, and understand and communicate as much as an anthropological field recording made solid and in unadorned prose (and that is praise not criticism). This is writing with understanding and understatement and without unnecessary adornment or embellishment. Doyle therefore achieves what Ian Cobain accomplishes in a different voice and a focus on a single violent incursion, the murder of off-duty RUC Photographer Millar McAllister in Lisburn on 22 April 1978, in ‘Anatomy of a Killing: Life and Death on a Divided Island’(2021). This is what the magisterial – and regrettably out of print – Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles (1999) achieves more clinically. Benedict Anderson’s statement about the relation between the living and the dead (quoted above) is is also used to introduce the Irish Linen Memorial into Doyle’s text – 400 white Irish linen handkerchiefs. The names of those killed between the years of 1966 and 2006 are printed and overstitched with embroidery, and spotted with sewn hair, onto each handkerchief. The Linen Memorial is a “creative project that has now spanned almost 20 years and has travelled to multiple countries, been constructed in churches, galleries, and libraries. it is an ongoing site‐conscious memorial which seeks to re‐narrate the almost 4,000 deaths which took place during the fraught period of ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland” As Doyle’s publisher notes; “Doyle skilfully weaves together the two strands of history, with the decline of the local linen industry serving as a metaphor for the descent into communal violence, but also for the solidarity that transcends the sectarian

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Senator shared asylum documents posted by immigration-protest group

by admin 7 December, 2023

Recent asylum arrivals in Westmeath were met with protests and racist language from locals and had their asylum documents shared on social media. By Conor O’Carroll. Senator Sharon Keogan has shared a link to personal asylum documents posted to the internet following claims that a family seeking asylum in Ireland had received a “new 3-bed apartment” after arriving. The independent Senator claimed that the family had arrived in Belfast last week before travelling down to Dublin to claim asylum. She cited a Facebook post from a little-known community group from Coole, County Westmeath, called Coole Concerns. The group shared pictures of what appears to be personal asylum documentation obtained from the applicants, who travelled to Ireland from Bangladesh fearing for their safety, according to the documents. Racist language was used to describe the families that remained stranded in the taxi, describing them as “gorillas”, with the group also demanding they be sent back to Dublin Bangladesh has been rocked by protests and political violence over the past number of weeks ahead of contentious elections set to be held in January. The violence has left at least eleven dead and thousands arrested, according to reports from Human Rights Watch. The opposition leader, along with over 160 Bangladesh Nationalist Party officials, has been charged with the murder of a police officer – an offence that carries the death penalty. Amnesty International has also recently criticised the Bangladeshi government’s “callous disregard for the right to life” relating to its use of capital punishment. Speaking to right-wing platform, Gript, Coole Concerns members said the family approached the group, who were standing outside protesting their arrival, seeking help from them. They said the family produced the documents provided to them by the Department of Children and the group took pictures of them and posted them online. A spokesperson for Coole Concerns told Village they were unsure whether permission was sought from the family to photograph and post their asylum documents, adding that there wasn’t agreement in the group on the matter. They did not answer questions asking whether sharing these documents had undermined the safety of the family in Ireland. Coole Concerns was formed in October this year following confirmation from the Department of Children that temporary emergency accommodation was to be used in the village to house 98 asylum seekers. The group has held meetings in the community and has attracted the support of National Party leader James Reynolds. The group has claimed that the village will be “up-ended and way of life completely changed” due to the arrival of these families and that there aren’t sufficient amenities in the area to support them. A series of protests outside the refurbished accommodation centre on the grounds of a former orthopaedic hospital have been held over the past number of weeks, including blocking the entrance and leaving families stranded in the taxis they arrived in. A livestream recording from the night the families arrived heard cries of “you’re not an Irishman, you’re a piece of shit” from the crowd, though it was unclear to whom it was directed. Videos from the night also saw the Coole Concerns members engaging with an official from the Department of Children and a member of An Garda Síochána. Racist language was used to describe the families that remained stranded in the taxi, describing them as “gorillas”, with the group also demanding they be sent back to Dublin. There was no reaction from those who were gathered to the racist language, apart from pleas from the Department of Children official to “not use that language about any human being”. The family produced the documents provided to them by the Department of Children and the group took pictures of them and posted them online The spokesperson for Coole Concerns, who asked not to be named, initially said that the person who used the racist language was an elderly man in the community, but later claimed that the person was not from the village, adding that they don’t think “the way it was said was the way it was meant”. They also claimed the man was not a part of the Coole Concerns committee or wider group. “We’re not racist in our group”, the spokesperson continued. The barricade outside the accommodation lasted for several hours, with the last livestream update coming in the early hours of the morning. As the families finally entered their accommodation, they were met with jeers from the gathered crowd. In recent days, the group has also shared posts from conspiracy website The Irish Inquiry and a Facebook page purporting to be the Australian Tea Party. Australia’s register of political parties does not include the ‘Tea Party’ and their website features several stock images claiming to be the party’s politicians. Senator Keogan told Village: “The publishing of anecdotal evidence of what towns and villages across the country are experiencing is vital if people are to be equipped with the information necessary to realise the full picture of what is going on”. “I utterly condemn any verbal attacks on, or use of slurs in referring to, any person”, Senator Keogan continued, saying “the thinking of others as ‘lesser’ has no place in Irish society”. She also said she abhors “violence of any kind”, calling for anyone thinking of targeting this family to “do nothing of the sort”.

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Dublin riots response turns to political point-scoring.

by admin 5 December, 2023

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill seems to have misrepresented Sinn Féin’s stance on anti-immigrant protests in Ballybrack. By Conor O’Carroll. An emotional outburst in the Dáil last week from Minister of State, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, in the wake of the riots in Dublin accused the party of “playing both sides of every argument” in relation to anti-immigration protests held in Ballybrack over the summer. “I’m not saying this politically”, the Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire told the Dáil, “I’m saying this because we lived through it in Ballybrack in July”. The South Dublin village was rocked by days of protests during the summer that culminated in a rock being thrown through the window of the family home of independent Councillor Hugh Lewis. Attached to the rock was a note warning Councillor Lewis to “stop supporting refugees”. Minster Carroll MacNeill continued by telling the Dáil that Sinn Féin “did nothing to help” quell the anger on the streets of Dublin. “Sinn Féin had representatives locally, was active on the ground and had councillors in Killiney-Shankill. The only people who did not help me and did not help Deputies [Richard] Boyd Barrett, [Cormac] Devlin and [Ossian] Smyth or the gardaí were Sinn Féin representatives”, she said. Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh retorted across the chamber that “you don’t even know your own area”, referencing the fact that Sinn Féin doesn’t have any councillors in Dún Laoghaire County Council, having lost all three seats at the 2019 local elections. Despite this intervention, Minister Carroll MacNeill persisted, saying “We needed your help. You were on the ground, had a strong local presence and did nothing to help. I will never forget it”. While Sinn Féin may not have an elected representative in Dún Laoghaire, they do still have a local presence through their area representatives. Village found a statement posted to Facebook by Sinn Féin Dún Laoghaire on 14 July condemning the protests taking place outside refugee and asylum centres and calling for them to “stop immediately”. “People, who have been traumatised in the process of getting here, should not be subject to further trauma by people protesting and harassing them”, the statement continued, before directing attention towards the government’s “failures”. The statement also took issue with those “who are deliberately using this issue to stoke hatred towards others, to spread scare stories with little or no basis in truth”, while also criticising the protesters who “seem intent on spreading lies in relation to our party and its policies”. Stefani Doyle-Howlett, the Sinn Féin representative for Killiney/Shankill, the local electoral area encompassing Ballybrack village, also took part in a video alongside Councillor Lewis, Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Councillor Melisa Halpin calling for the people of Dún Laoghaire to stand together and “say no to hate and fear, [and] yes to decency and respect”. And in the days following the protests, a Rally for Decency and Respect and Against Hate and Fear in Dún Laoghaire was held, where Sinn Féin’s Dún Laoghaire representative, Shane O’Brien, told the hundreds that turned out that “protests outside of places where vulnerable people are being accommodated are wrong and should be condemned by anyone who upholds the Irish value of community”. Minster Carroll MacNeill continued by telling the Dáil that Sinn Féin “did nothing to help” quell the anger on the streets of Dublin Sinn Féin have since called on Minister Carroll MacNeill to correct the Dáil record, with O’Brien rejecting the comments made. “On behalf of members of Sinn Féin in Ballybrack and across Dún Laoghaire, I absolutely reject the nonsense uttered by Minister Carroll MacNeill during her contribution this week in the Dáil, O’Brien said. “She purposefully misled the Dáil and should be made to come back and correct the record. Language is extremely important relating to these matters, and the fact that a government minister would spread misinformation to the level which she did was shocking” Sinn Féin’s Dún Laoghaire representative, Shane O’Brien said: “She purposefully misled the Dáil and should be made to come back and correct the record. Language is extremely important relating to these matters, and the fact that a government minister would spread misinformation to the level which she did was shocking”. “Sinn Féin members, myself included, help organised, participated and spoke at numerous events, including a major demonstration in Dún Laoghaire town centre, against the attacks and protests in Ballybrack”, the statement continues. Village contacted Minister Carroll MacNeill’s office seeking further context to her comments in the Dáil but did not receive a response prior to publication. A spokesperson for the Minister later provided the following response: “The Minister specifically mentioned a crucial meeting arranged by the community Gardaí to help diffuse the situation in Ballybrack. This was due to take place on July 27th at 2 pm in Loughlinstown Community Rooms and was to be attended by members of the community who it was believed would have influence over some of those protesting. The hope was to ease concerns and the resulting protests at the time. Both Minister Carroll MacNeill and Mr. O’Brien were to attend this meeting. Mr. O’Brien withdrew from the crucial meeting minutes before it was due to start and the meeting then did not proceed. This was a huge disappointment as it was a key opportunity to help reduce the incidence of conflict at the time. The protests and public order difficulties persisted for a number of weeks thereafter”. The spokesperson also stated that the Minister “is aware that Sinn Fein do not have an elected representative in that electoral area since that election” and “referred in the Dáil to them having had a Councillor there previously”.

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“I could be on the streets in a month”: Minister flooded with complaints over lack of student accommodation.

by admin 1 December, 2023

By Conor O’Carroll Over a hundred complaints were sent to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, ahead of the start of the academic year as the struggle for student accommodation continued for thousands of students. Parents and students inundated the Minister’s office with complaints about the lack of available accommodation, while some pleaded for help, records released to Village Magazine show. “Never once in the 14 years of getting my children up and out to school with their lunch and uniform did it occur to me that they may not get to university because of a severe lack of student accommodation”, one parent fumed. “Students have been let down in this regard”, they continued. Another complained that “there is a total crisis in accommodation if you don’t want to pay over €2,000 [a month] for a one-bedroom shoe box”. Desperate measures to attend also saw some students living in hostels and hotels, at great expense to themselves and their families. Others faced long commutes or sleeping on the floors of friends The removal of several student accommodation options from the market, with the spaces instead being used to house Ukrainian refugees, created a further scarcity of purpose-built student accommodation this year. Analysis of tender documents published by the Department of Children shows at least eight student-accommodation options from Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork have been contracted for Ukrainian accommodation. While there was an understanding of the need to house Ukrainians fleeing war, the use of student accommodation amid shortages was met with frustration by many. “Unless you have your head in the sand you must know that third-level students have faced a huge challenge in securing accommodation”, complained one parent, describing the situation as a “government in which the right hand does not seem to know what the left hand is doing”. The competing demands of the two departments led to internal clashes between staffers when two more student accommodation premises in Sligo were contracted by the Department of Children earlier this summer. Sheenagh Rooney, Assistant Secretary of the Ukraine Programme Management Division, pushed back against queries from Department of Further & Higher Education officials at a Humanitarian Senior Officials Group meeting in June. Rooney cited “competing priorities” between the two departments and noted that the student accommodation beds were coming from private providers. The government eventually overturned the decision to contract student accommodation in Sligo and new rules were put in place requiring student accommodation to be vacant for 12 months before it is eligible to house refugees. However, with contracts at many premises already signed for this year, this change was of little benefit to the students struggling to find somewhere to live. Analysis of tender documents published by the Department of Children shows at least eight student-accommodation options from Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork have been contracted for Ukrainian accommodation “How can young people attend college if they have no place to live”, questioned one student, while another asked: “What are we to do? Keep deferring for years in the hope that some accommodation will become available”? Union of Students in Ireland President, Chris Clifford said: “There is no doubt that student accommodation is an absolute disaster at the moment, and it has been for a number of years”. “Students are paying extortionate prices for rooms, just so they can get their degrees and make a life for themselves. Many who haven’t been able to find accommodation at all are commuting long distances on buses, some up to three or four hours a day, or incurring huge expenses driving to college”, he continued. Another issue raised repeatedly in the emails to Minister Harris was the lack of primary teaching options outside of Dublin and Limerick, and the accommodation pressures this creates with students for the popular career choice congregating in one area. Earlier this year, Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD, announced over 600 new primary teaching course places over the next two years to combat the ongoing recruitment struggles schools face. However, these extra spaces weren’t matched with additional beds. In Limerick, hundreds of beds were also lost when student accommodation close to Mary Immaculate College was contracted to house Ukrainian refugees. “I do not see the benefit of announcing additional college places if there is nowhere for the students to live”, wrote one parent, calling the search for accommodation “an extremely stressful and expensive process”. As the start of the academic year loomed, the stress and anxiety placed on families and students searching for accommodation grew. Some spoke of being forced to defer courses, or in some cases defer for a second time meaning they would have to re-apply with the CAO next year. Others questioned whether they should give up on their dream because of the lack of accommodation. Desperate measures to attend also saw some students living in hostels and hotels, at great expense to themselves and their families. Others faced long commutes or sleeping on the floors of friends. Clifford said these arrangments adversely affect students’ mental health, with many feeling “isolated and disconnected” from their classmates, friends and wider college experience. A spokesperson for the Department of Further and Higher Education told Village: “Minister Harris is acutely aware of the difficulties being faced by students and their families in securing appropriate affordable accommodation to allow their participation in higher education”. “An additional 929 beds were available in publicly funded Higher Education institutions this academic year, compared to last year. The Department is aware of an additional 618 private beds completed so far this year, with a further 1,500 privately funded beds scheduled for completion this year”, the spokesperson continued. “To date, the Government has approved a total of up to €61m to directly invest in the construction of circa 1,000 new student accommodation units across a number of higher education institutions with discounted rates targeted at SUSI and other student cohorts for a percentage of the units”. Some questioned whether they should give up on their dream because of the lack

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‘The use of ships to house people must be avoided’, Dáil committee warns

by admin 29 November, 2023

By Conor O’Carroll An Oireachtas committee has warned the government that the use of ships for accommodation of refugees and asylum seekers must be avoided over potential health and safety concerns and human rights violations. The Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth published its Report on Refugees and Integration yesterday, outlining a number of recommendations for the government. Among the recommendations was an unambiguous rejection of the government proposal to house refugees and asylum seekers on cruise ships or barges, similar to a plan enacted by the UK Home Office. “The use of ships to house people must be avoided”, the report warns, stating that their use “has been widely contested internationally due to both health and safety concerns and human rights violations”. The report notes that the proposal remains months away from coming into operation, but also states that it is a “serious strand” for the Department of Children and is continuing to work on finalising berths and issuing the request for tender. The report also calls on people not to take their “grievances” with the provision of housing, health, transport and education services out on those coming to Ireland Village reported last month that officials from the Department of Children had sought advice from the UK Home Office over the operation of the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge. As part of the emails released to Village, Department of Children officials told their Home Office counterparts that the draft request for tender for Ireland’s version of the barges was “well advanced” and that “berths [had] been identified”. The official also sought advice on “planning and environmental matters”, suggesting that a call between both government departments would be beneficial. They also congratulated the Home Office on the launch of the barge days before it was evacuated following the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply. Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman TD is quoted in the report as saying: “It’s not an easy solution but because of the pressure on accommodation right now, we have to look at all potential avenues of accommodation and floating accommodation continues to be one that we’re looking at”. Department officials also planned to visit Edinburgh this summer, where the cruise ship MS Victoria housed over a thousand Ukrainian refugees before being moved to alternative accommodation when the Scottish government ended the charter of the ship. Another ship, the MS Ambition, housed 1,200 Ukranians and was docked in Glasgow before it too was returned when the government’s contract ended earlier this year. The Department’s visit didn’t proceed, however, due to a lack of staff available to attend the trip. Last month, the Department confirmed to Village that it is seeking to tender floating accommodation for International Protection Applicants (asylum seekers) and not Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (Ukrainians). Earlier this week, the Irish Examiner reported that asylum seekers arriving in the country may end up sleeping on the street with the government on the brink of running out of accommodation. They cited government sources with “serious concerns” for the safety of these people, particularly in the wake of the riots in Dublin that were stoked by far-right, anti-immigrant factions. The Joint Committee report is equally firm on refugees and asylum seekers sleeping in tents or finding themselves homeless. “We find ourselves in a situation where some people seeking protection in Ireland are being housed in tents or left to sleep in the street”, it states, before calling for the “normalisation” of sleeping in tents to end. Almost one hundred recommendations were given in the report, across a range of areas and themes relating to refugees. Some of these included the strengthening and enforcement of media rules and regulations to counter disinformation, the establishment of anti-racism initiatives in all schools and the allocation of additional resources to Tusla to adequately respond to young people in need of protection. Among the recommendations was an unambiguous rejection of the government proposal to house refugees and asylum seekers on cruise ships or barges, similar to a plan enacted by the UK Home Office The report also calls on people not to take their “grievances” with the provision of housing, health, transport and education services out on those coming to Ireland. “They are not responsible for those problems”, it says. It also states that Ireland has a “moral and legal obligation to offer protection to people seeking it”, while noting that “emigration has been a lifeline for Ireland at times” in the past and that many people still leave for the likes of America, the UK and Australia in search of better life opportunities. Village has contacted the Department of Children for a response to the report and its recommendations.

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Opinion: Dublin riots a symptom of failed government policy and ignoring far-right influences

by admin 25 November, 2023

By Conor Lenihan On Friday night – in the aftermath of Thursday’s big riots, O’Connell Street was anything but calm, whatever spin the media were putting on it. A young female Garda told me “tonight it’s zero tolerance”. Earlier she had shown exactly what she meant as she clubbed a particularly troublesome lad to the ground. The suspect was quickly handcuffed on the ground and forcibly pushed to a waiting Garda van. Another man, giving cheek to the Guards, was swiftly surrounded and his pockets emptied for inspection. Drugs were found and he too was whisked away to another waiting van. There were anything from 40 to 80 gardaí in the vicinity of the GPO. They swarmed on groups of, predominantly young men, who were forming into sizeable gangs. If people gave lip or refused to move on they were brought to the van and their evening was over. On Friday the street was in the hands of a mixture of plain-clothes operatives, uniformed gardaí and imposing-looking members of the Public Order Unit following trouble-seeking youths down the streets off O’Connell Street. Media photographers and TV camera people lingered on in the hope of capturing another incident but after 9pm things quietened down. One garda confessed to me that they hadn’t gone in hard enough or early enough the night before. It seems to me that the riot in O’Connell Street has hit a raw nerve with the Garda – it’s as if people don’t believe anymore that they’re either willing or able to do the job they are meant to do – maintain public order. An example of the poor resourcing is that the Garda only got water cannons from the Police Service of Northern Ireland after the riot had already happened. Worse still they had these years ago but someone in authority said it would not be appropriate to use them – wrong signal and all that. The Garda need what other police forces have to deal with urban riots – tear gas, water cannons and special units that are permanently patrolling like the Public Order Unit. If these are used in trouble spots they are a significant deterrent. The anarchy, riots and burning of vehicles on O’Connell Street on Thursday are the inevitable result of a profound neglect of the North inner city over many, many years and ignoring the small far-right factions that exploit young urban men. Symptomatic of this neglect is the existence of a Garda office in a prominent location on the street – but it is rarely occupied. It was put in place years ago in response to crime attacks. Day or night, it is largely empty, with presumably an expensive lease being paid for its fig leaf presence. There is one Garda stationed there from daytime hours to 11pm at night. Public order and trained Garda members of the riots squad need to be based here. It is also the office of the Irish Tourist Assistance Service. The O’Connell Street office was an empty gesture by the authorities to suggest a permanent, substantial Garda presence. It has no deterrent value at this stage unless strengthened in numbers. The attack led to the US State Department warning American citizens not to visit Dublin. This week’s rioting follows in the wake of a daytime attack on an American tourist in July on nearby Talbot Street – a stone’s throw from Store Street Garda Station. The attack led to the US State Department warning American citizens not to visit Dublin. After Thursday it is easy to see why. The streets surrounding the capital’s busiest station are one of the most dangerous places to be at night-time. Far-right activists have proved very adept at harnessing communities against direct provision centres for asylum seekers and perpetrating arson attacks alongside hooligans of one sort or the other. The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, took a high-profile walk around the area in the wake of that attack, but there has been no appreciable improvement in policing. The reality is the North inner city has become both a magnet and a dumping ground for a diverse set of social problems; including drug addiction, homelessness, street begging and people with mental illness with nowhere to go. Chronic underfunding and lack of appropriate treatment resources for decades have left vulnerable people on the streets as a direct consequence of the failures of government policy. The dumping of these problems on the country’s main street has brought its own day-to-day havoc as well as the horrific night-time rioting. Garda morale is at an all-time low. Resignations from the force are running at an all-time high and a lot of momentum was lost with the closure of Templemore during Covid; and indeed with the dubious suspension of the ‘head of human resources and people development’, John Barrett. The morning after the riots, the rank-and-file Garda Representative Association’s Brendan O’Connor was rather reserved, refusing to repeat his membership’s statement of lack of confidence in the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris. In the circumstances he chose discretion. Nothing further needed to be added. Karl Ryan, who operates a restaurant on O’Connell Street, describes the country’s main thoroughfare as a “forgotten place”, relative to Grafton Street and the streets around it on the more salubrious Southside of the Liffey. The myriad of laneways around and adjacent to O’Connell Street are havens for drug addicts shooting up, illicit drinking and people defecating in pavements littered with empty needles. The urban decay is accentuated by the presence of derelict sites hidden from, but close to the main thoroughfares, a problem exacerbated by poor planning. Back in 2018, Shane Coleman’s morning programme on Newstalk accompanied me around these sites in an effort to highlight the sheer longstanding neglect. That build-up of neglect has been largely ignored. The physical shabbiness is at direct odds with the state of comparable streets in the South inner city. The prevalence of new hotels and the absence of new apartment blocks and social and affordable housing are