Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan has said that people living in asylum seeker accommodation who have received full refugee status in Ireland should pay rent.
Speaking at Castletymon Library on Monday, the Minister said that around 4,000 asylum seekers had received full refugee status in Ireland.
He said: “They’re not in Direct Provision, but they’re remaining in the same accommodation, and in those circumstances, should they be charged? I believe they should.
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“They’re no longer in the asylum process. They have got their full status.
“I would imagine it’s in circumstances like that, that the government will be considering some payment contribution.”
Due to the current accommodation crisis, the Green Party leader said it would now be “appropriate” to charge refugees living in asylum seeker centres.
He said: “I can’t underestimate the scale of the challenge we have at this moment in time in terms of providing for both people displaced people from Ukraine, but also international protection refugees and our own people.
“We’re going to have to make difficult choices and difficult decisions in Government to accommodate the people we need to accommodate.
“We are really in a very, very tight place now in terms of not having obvious, easy, alternative accommodation places available.
“In those circumstances, that sort of decision is appropriate.”
The news comes after Mr Ryan announced plans to fast-track 35 public transport projects that have already received funding.
He said: “There’s been enough targets, enough policy measures, enough plans. It’s delivery on the ground that we need to see happen.”
Although the 35 projects are just a fraction of the 1,000 public transport projects planned, Mr Ryan said it is hoped they will be used as examples of what can be rolled out across the country.
“It’s not being anti-car or trying to disadvantage motorists, it’s trying to make a system that works,” he said.
“But our current system doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for cyclists. It doesn’t work for bus, doesn’t work for pedestrians, doesn’t work for car drivers. It’s not a well-designed, efficient system.
“And when you have characteristics of Dublin city centre, when you’ve a multi-lane, one-way systems often, which was designed to get as much traffic through the city centre as possible, that in my mind is no longer optimal.”
He added: “It’s not saying no to the car, but it’s designing it in a way where it’s better balanced, and the car has its place, but it’s not in multi-lane motorway systems through our city centre.”
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