Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman has confirmed that “several hundred” beds will come onstream to accommodate some of the nearly 500 asylum seekers sleeping on the street.
The Green Party TD also vowed that he and Justice Minister Simon Harris will meet with Garda management this week following violent scenes at a makeshift campsite set up by homeless international protection seekers this weekend.
A fire was started on Sandwith Street on Friday evening, with beds and belongings of asylum seekers badly damaged. The incident was widely condemned by the Government and opposition.
READ MORE: Sandwith Street scenes condemned as Gardai confirm arrest
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday, Minister O’Gorman confirmed that 480 international protection seekers are currently without accommodation.
He said that several hundred beds will be brought into the system this week.
Minister O’Gorman explained: “The accommodation system is under real pressure right now. “As long as people are being left unaccommodated, it's not working as it should.
“We are responding to an unprecedented situation. We’re accommodating 84,000 people now between Ukrainian displaced persons and international protection applicants.
“As we know at the start of last year, we were accommodating 8,500 people.
“Irrespective of how robust the system you have, when you have that kind of increase, you're going to put a strain on it. We see that same strain on systems across Europe.
“We're accommodating people in hotels and former barracks and in refurbished offices.
“Over the next week, we'll be in the position to make a significant amount of offers of accommodation to people who up to this point have been unaccommodated.
“As of the start of this weekend, there was just around 480 people who we haven't been able to make an offer of accommodation to.
“We will be able to make, over the course of this week, offers to a significant number of this group.
“We've got a couple of hundred beds coming online across this week. We already had some come out and come online on Friday.”
Minister O’Gorman said that while 5,000 beds have been secured so far this year, half of those have been used to accommodate people who had to move due to hotel providers pulling out of contracts.
The Dublin West TD also said that he had been in touch with Gardaí before and after a protest that saw a campsite on Sandwith Street burnt down.
He said that they did “all they could” given they had to deal with “the far-right, the counter protest and the international protection applicants”.
He continued: “Myself and [Justice] Minister [Simon] Harris will be meeting with An Garda Siochana management during the week to discuss the response to protests.
“Obviously, people have the right to disagree with Government policy, people have the right to protest but they don't have a right to intimidate people.
“They don't have a right to commit acts of violence.”
Minister O’Gorman also confirmed that the first trance of modular homes will be occupied from June, with around 300 of 700 homes occupied “by the end of summer”.
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