The Irish Government’s policy on accommodating protection applicants emphasises the importance of integration, yet a rural town in Co.Tipperary demonstrates how state failures permeate every level of the accommodation system.
For the last 12 years, the number of people who are forcibly displaced around the globe has increased year-on-year. Ireland has seen its own increase in the number of protection applicants arriving into the country, putting pressure on a system which the government has stated was designed for roughly 3,000 - 4,000 arrivals per year. In response to this, the Irish Government adopted a ‘reactive crisis-led’ approach, declaring on December 4, 2023, that the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) is no longer able to provide accommodation to all protection applicants “due to a severe shortage”. As a result, there are currently 3,363 people without any offer of accommodation. 25,007 people are living in IPAS emergency accommodation, 7,101 of whom are children, and a further 722 adults are living in tented accommodation.
Consecutive governments have received significant public backlash for their approaches to accommodating International Protection Applicants (IPAs). A High Court case taken by Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) in 2023 found that the failure of the state to provide accommodation, and the provisions (a €28 voucher) to an Afghan asylum seeker in lieu of accommodation, did “not come close to what is required” by the European Union (Reception Conditions) Regulations of 2018.
The previous asylum reception system of Direct Provision (DP) lasted for over 20 years, and was criticised repeatedly by human rights organisations, from IHREC to the UNHCR, for its treatment of asylum seekers. The White Paper sought to end DP, and replace it with the current system of the International Protection Support Service (IPSS) and ‘Reception and Integration Centres’.
Undeniably, the conditions that newly arrived applicants are faced with must be improved. The Government admits in its new strategy that it is failing those in need: “There is a legal obligation on the state to meet the requirements under the EU Recast Reception Conditions Directive to provide accommodation to all who request it. For the second time this year the state is unable to fulfil these obligations.” Yet, from the early days of Direct Provision to the current reception systems, the government has always emphasised the importance of “integration from day one.”
In 2019 in North Tipperary, the small rural town of Borrisokane was selected as a location for a Direct Provision centre, with 19 families chosen to move into the Riverside Accommodation block. However, locals soon formed a group, the Borrisokane Liaison Committee, and immediately turned to their local councillors, demanding a meeting with the Department of Justice, making headlines as the ‘small town with a big heart.’
The group demanded that should these 19 families be moved to the town, they would be allowed to stay long-term. The town earnestly wanted to avoid a “revolving door” of residents coming-and-going from Riverside, each family moved on to a new centre in 6 months or a year. They wanted to be able to ensure families were given a plausible chance at a secure future in Borrisokane, the chance for their children to settle into schools and join sports clubs, for parents to find jobs, build networks, and raise their children.
Margaret Donnelly is the PRO of the Borrisokane Liaison Committee, and was part of the team who secured the ground-breaking deal following three days of negotiation, the first of its kind in Ireland. The agreement was made on government headed paper, signed by the Principal Officer of IPAS Mark Wilson, the private property group who owns Riverside Accommodation, Double Property, and the Borrisokane Liaison Committee. It stated that each family would be allowed to stay in the accommodation they had been provided; as each family received their asylum status, they would be given the opportunity to continue living in the same accommodation either through the private rental system, or with the assistance of state benefits such as the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). €75,000 in funding was secured for local initiatives which would promote integration, and agreements were made that essential services such as the local GP would be expanded as necessary. As far as Donnelly and the Borrisokane Liaison Committee were concerned, the agreement was “indefinite.”
It lasted for just six years. In March 2024, the residents of Riverside were issued a series of eviction notices in order to accommodate a new group of IPAs. Donnelly says the eviction notices came out of the blue, causing a great deal of distress for the residents living there. They had built lives in Borrisokane, and the eviction notices threatened that.
[...] the Government was now proposing that these families move back into a system they had spent so long getting out of, entire families going from their own apartments to sharing one room.
Building on its actions from 2019, the community of Borrisokane protested on behalf of the Riverside families. The initial eviction was temporarily paused in July, until just one month later a second eviction notice was issued. This time, the Riverside families were offered alternative accommodation in an old nursing home that had been earmarked as emergency accommodation for IPAs in Birr, Co.Offaly.
Many of the Riverside residents had previously lived in emergency accommodation before Borrisokane had presented them with a long-term solution; the Government was now proposing that these families move back into a system they had spent so long getting out of, entire families going from their own apartments to sharing one room.
Once again, the town of Borrisokane resisted, gaining national media coverage, and the eviction was lifted once more. However, the families are still living in limbo. They remain unsure about their future in Riverside, and do not know if another eviction notice will come through the door. They can no longer trust the word of IPAS, or the agreement made with the Government in 2019. Donnelly says many of these residents have had their hands forced, and have now moved out into other accommodation in Borrisokane to avoid any possibility of uprooting their lives, “They were so unsure and uncertain [they] got properties to move into that they can ill afford.” The rental and housing market around Borrisokane is already limited, and since the evictions, the cost of renting in the area has only increased.
Galeema is one of the Riverside residents who decided to move out. After living in a hotel in Monaghan for two months, she and her family of four children were moved to the Riverside apartments in 2019. When she arrived in Borrisokane, Galeema was met by what she describes as a “warm and welcoming” community, recalling only “good experiences from the beginning of being in Borrisokane.” Galeema also describes that when she first moved to Borrisokane, she did not know the permanence of the situation until she was stopped in the street by a local; “They mentioned, you know, that they were fighting for us to stay, to permanently stay in Borrisokane. So that idea popped into my head. Okay, gosh, we may hopefully be able to stay.” Soon, Borrisokane came to represent a sense of “stability” for her family. However, just six years later, this stability seemed no more; “the eviction, it just happened so quickly and it was unexpected. It was like they just pulled the rug out from under us. [...] It was a complete shock.”
Like most families in this country, the residents in Riverside had built support mechanisms in Borrisokane; the majority of these parents are now working, and rely on each other - friends and neighbours - for school runs and pick-ups. The move to Birr would have broken the networks and support systems built in the community, and caused major disruptions to their families’ efforts to integrate. It also indicates a lack of understanding of rural communities by the Government; if integration was on their mind, then the lack of public transport between rural towns was not.
Birr is only 21 kilometers away from Borrisokane, but the connecting local link bus runs just twice daily, at inadequate times for a school or work commute, meaning the families, many of whom do not have cars, would be forced to move schools and change jobs.
Double Property, the group that owns the Riverside apartments, offered certain residents the opportunity to move into other properties they owned in Borrisokane, so they could remain in the area. Galeema accepted this offer, but she felt like the decision was out of her hands; with her future in Riverside uncertain, and the only alternative uprooting her family to move to Birr, she accepted the offer. “I feel like I was actually just hasty and I wasn't thinking properly really, amongst everything that was happening. And I took the offer and I signed. But the rent is way high and I was supposed to get HAP, but I didn’t.”
She continues “[The government and Double Property] could have looked out for me a bit more if they wanted to because I'm sure they knew certain things that I didn't know, this being my first time that I'm in Ireland and I'm [applying for HAP] in a rental house. First time out of Direct Provision. I didn't get the support that was required to make a good decision and to be stable. So right now I'm paying rent that's €1250 without HAP, without any support, with nothing, being a single mum.”
It's one of the most bandied words that the Government have, ‘integration, integration,’ until it doesn't suit them anymore.
The eviction notices stated that since the Riverside residents were no longer under the IPAS system, many having gained formal status in the years since the agreement, they must vacate the premises. However, Donnelly states those were not the terms of the agreement reached in 2019. Since the first eviction notice was issued in March 2024, Donnelly and the Borrisokane Liaison Committee have tried extensively to meet with government officials and IPAS representatives to discuss the situation, but they have heard nothing back, with Donnelly describing the "non-existent” communication as “absolutely disgusting.” She recalls that IPAS Senior Housing Officer Darren Ryan visited Riverside prior to the town’s protest, “He was down there at a meeting [with] some of the residents trying to get them to move on, and we went down looking for him to meet with us for a few minutes to try and discuss what was happening. He refused point-blank and we said we weren't moving until he spoke to us, and the next thing three squad cars arrived.”
For Donnelly, the lack of communication is especially infuriating, recalling the once positive and collaborative relationship the Government had with the community of Borrisokane, “They welcomed us with open arms back in 2019 [...] They were lauding us above everybody, that such a great community of Borrisokane, what they're doing, how they're accepting people... ‘integration’. It's one of the most bandied words that the Government have, ‘integration, integration,’ until it doesn't suit them anymore.”
You know, it seems like it's a continuation from where I've come from, which was unstable and it was indefinite. And I still am in that. Even though I've moved out, – I've still got that uncertainty hanging over me.
The Government’s White Paper rested on a principle of integration from day one, maintaining an approach to “place people on the most successful pathway possible towards an independent life in Ireland.” The 2019 Borrisokane agreement had set the Riverside residents on this pathway. Integration initiatives are required from day one, but they must be maintained every day thereafter as well. Galeema and the Riverside residents are an example of how the Irish state is failing IPAs at every stage of the accommodation process. Galeema tells me how she views her current situation, “You know, it seems like it's a continuation from where I've come from, which was unstable and it was indefinite. And I still am in that. Even though I've moved out, – I've still got that uncertainty hanging over me.”