HARRIS HITS OUT OVER ATTACK ON ‘REFUGEE HOUSING’
THE Taoiseach has blasted the people behind an arson attack on a building that was earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation.
The fire, at Trudder House in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Fire services attended the scene and extinguished the fire.
Gardai said a technical examination of the scene has been conducted and investigations into the incident were ongoing.
A number of buildings that have been earmarked for housing asylum seekers, as well as sites rumoured to be, have been targeted in recent times.
There have been more than 20 fires at properties associated, sometimes incorrectly, with accommodating asylum seekers in 2023 and 2024.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said that Ireland is responding to a humanitarian crisis and that the arson attacks on buildings during a housing crisis are “extraordinarily unhelpful”.
“I understand there’s investigation ongoing in relation to that incident and I don’t want to say anything in the position I hold that prejudices the outcome of that,” Mr Harris yesterday said.
Supply
“But, of course, I’m very concerned to see any fire happening in any buildings or indeed any location, particularly at a time when we live in a country that already has it constraints when it comes to housing supply.
“For anybody to take any action that will in any way further worsen that situation is extraordinarily unhelpful and in a very, very difficult and challenging time, when Ireland is responding to an humanitarian crisis.
“I’ll let the Garda investigation run its course before I comment further on any motives.”