McEntee springs into life to shut stable door
AFTER Sinn Féin’s vote of no confidence in the aftermath of the November riots and her PR own goal, scored while walking down Talbot Street in high heels and in a pathetic attempt to reassure us about safety in the north inner city, Helen McEntee could be forgiven for hoping that 2024 would mark a new chapter in her ministerial career.
Indeed, the stars seemed aligned when Cuan, the new agency dedicated to tackling domestic and sexual violence was put on a statutory footing on New Year’s Day, crowning the Minister’s achievements in an area where her performance has been surefooted, underpinned by empathy and passionate commitment.
But whatever hopes the Minister had of basking in the warm glow of satisfaction from a job well done were shortlived.
In no time at all, she has been pulled back into the vortex of the immigration crisis that is sweeping Europe, an area which she shows far less natural leadership for than gender-based violence.
IN the last week, the Justice Minister has presented an upbeat video, singing the praises of migrants, of the gifts they bring from more than €3billion in taxes to their contribution to the workforce.
On the other hand, she is talking tough about deportations. She has added Algeria and Botswana to our list of safe countries, meaning that International Protection applicants from there will be dealt with swiftly and for the most part, declined.
In a departure from our usual modus operandi of letting failed applicants slink into the shadows of the ‘black economy’ or else granting them leave to remain on compassionate grounds – basically a recognition of their long years spent appealing deportation orders in our labyrinthine immigration system – the Minister says that there will be deportations from now on.
Maybe as many as 5,000 per year, with planning already in train for chartering planes to deport people later this year. Hmm. She will have to excuse us if we don’t rush to book a spot on a Dublin airport viewing platform.
In fairness to McEntee, she is not the only member of the Cabinet who lacks assuredness on this hot-button issue, whose default setting is an overwhelming wariness of causing offence or giving the lunatic twitterati another hostage to fortune.
Obfuscation and PC platitudes may keep politicians out of trouble, but the downside is they cause the chasm between public and the political class to grow and – as we saw from the string of antiimmigrant protests – for hotheads to fill the vacuum spouting racist bile and fascist rhetoric.
The November riots were a wake-up call for the Government, crystallising the catastrophic consequence of allowing anti-immigrant sentiment to fester unaddressed.
This year’s wave of antiimmigrant protests around the country, from the ugly standoff between gardaí and far-right agitators outside Racket Hall hotel in Roscrea to the tense scenes in Carlow, show no let-up in the hardening of attitudes.
A new opinion poll has immigration eclipsing housing as the public’s top concern.
It hammers home the impression of a Government out of touch with public sentiment and under pressure, as it enters election mode, to take command of the situation.
The Government had hoped that refugees and economic migrants could continue to enter the country practically unnoticed as they have for the last 20 years.
It didn’t reckon on the Ukrainian war which, added to the housing crisis, stretched the available accommodation to breaking point, exposing the immigration system’s woeful lack of planning, dialogue and organisation.
In the face of a housing shortage and public concern it resorted to smuggling refugees into centres in the dead of night.
Add the lack of consultation with communities and it’s easy to see how local fears were whipped up about something clandestine and untoward going on.
By its own incompetence and cowardice, the Government let a relatively small and manageable challenge spiral into a full-blown national problem. In December, 147 newly arrived asylum seekers had nowhere to stay.
They were left to roam the streets in mid-winter with an increased social welfare payment of €113 to their name. What is that if not a recipe for disaster?
The Justice Minister is correct to robustly defend Government policy in her video and to emphasise our reliance on migrants but it’s a bit like shutting the proverbial stable door.
It’s also just one of a suite of measures that should have been taken long ago, like introducing a quota system until we at least have adequate housing to accommodate everyone. And enforcing deportation orders instead of a policy of laissez faire and strictly refusing entry to anyone with a criminal record, rather than turning a blind eye to let them take a chance on an asylum application.
THESE provisions would help assuage concern about open borders and the mythical ‘unvetted’ single male migrant. The arson attacks on premises earmarked for asylum seekers and the clamour of protests will always drown out the silent majority who understand why so many people are on the move across the world and appreciate our common humanity.
A recent poll shows that the majority would welcome an accommodation centre in their area if it was accompanied by an increase in funding and local resources. That says it all about how legitimate fears of a scarcity of school places or GPs, rather than crude racism, colours attitudes to immigrants.
In a weekend interview with refugees, a student from Somalia living in the accommodation centre in Baleskin, Finglas said that while she had never encountered hostility, some of her friends had been told to go back where they came from. She added: ‘The good thing is that there are always Irish people who will speak up for them. ‘They will reassure us that not all Irish people are like this’. Long may that last.