LAST UPDATE | 23 Jul
SINN FÉIN TODAY is calling for “audits” of services in local areas where international protection seeker accommodation centres are due to be located.
They also want to see a structured process put in place to allow for community consultation.
However, the party has said they do not yet have timelines for how long either process should take.
This afternoon, party leader Mary Lou McDonald launch the updated immigration policy, in a bid to “bring clarity” to its position.
“This is a very significant intervention from our party. Our approach is very different to that of Government,” McDonald said this afternoon.
“At the heart of our policy is community, the need for engagement and dialogue and a new approach which moves away from a policy based on private profiteering to locating centers only in areas with the capacity and services to support them.”
McDonald said today that it is a “fairer ask” for international protection accommodation centres to be be located in areas that are “better off” in terms of having better access to services and infrastructure.
When asked if that means Sinn Féin’s position is that middle class communities need to do more, McDonald responded:
“I mean, I don’t think there’s any secret of the fact that we represent working class communities. Yes, that’s true. We also represent people beyond that cohort, we’re a broad church at this stage. I think we’re sending out a message of common sense and fairness.”
Included in Sinn Féin’s plan is a “tripling of respurces in the international protection office from 400 staff currently to 1,200.
Speaking ahead of the launch this morning, the party’s social protection spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said it is Sinn Féin’s position that enforcement of asylum application decisions is not working at the moment.
He said Sinn Féin wants to see greater enforcement of deportation orders and said there is much more scope for cooperation with Britain.
Ó Laoghaire said Sinn Féin wants to see Ireland work more with Keir Starmer’s government in the UK to “safely return people who first made an [asylum] application in the UK”.
“We’ve never objected to the checks that currently happen in relation to public transport and things like that. That has been going on for many, many years. We have never raised any objections.
“The Common Travel Area is for British and Irish citizen and people who have the right to reside here. Having said that, is that solution optimal? It’s not,” Ó Laoghaire.
Ó Laoghaire also outlined how Sinn Féin wants to see “audits” done of local communities ahead of international protection accommodation centres being located in an area.
This would be done by using the Pobal HP Deprivation Index as well as CSO and Census data, the party explained today.
“What needs to happen before a centre is located is that you audit the location. What is there in terms of services, what is their terms of transport and also, what is the situation there.
“There are communities out there that are clearly struggling, that do not have enough in terms of services and are deprived.
“And I think that process needs to be used to identify if a place is completely unsuitable, then there shouldn’t be anything located there,” Ó Laoghaire.
When asked what happens if a community “says no”, Ó Laoghaire said:
“There isn’t any process in planning applications of any kind, where it is simply the case that a vote is taken or anything like that but in any other application for any other process or any other piece of infrastructure, people have an opportunity to have their say.”
He added that there are people out there who are “interested in violence and racist in many respects” but said the situation as it stands does not help people who have concerns and reservations and have no where to “direct their views”.
Ó Laoghaire said a standardised process is needed to allow people to submit their views on what is needed in the area.
“I don’t think that’s a lot to ask, actually, that people have the opportunity to write something down, to make a submission, and then IPAS respond to it. And indeed respond to it, not simply in writing, but also to try and address the situation,” he added.
Sinn Féin also wants to see an expansion of countries on the safe countries list and the introduction of “partially safe countries”.
Countries being deemed safe means the Department of Justice understands that there is generally no systematic persecution, no torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or no threat of violence from an armed conflict in that country.
While citizens from those countries can still seek International Protection in Ireland, the applications from these countries will be accelerated.
“We believe the system can also be improved by amending the International Protection Act to ensure that countries can be designated as partially safe, that exists in a few countries.
“There are many large countries where the political situation is different in different parts of the country, or for different categories within that state. We think that legislation can be amended.
“Obviously anyone travelling from any country can make an application for international protection, the safe country policy and principle exists to allow for expediated procedures,” Ó Laoghaire said.
During the launch today the party did not give an example of any countries it thinks should be deemed partially safe.
The party has also reiterated that Ukrainians who wish to remain in Ireland after the Temporary Protection Directive ends in March 2026 should begin to apply for work permits now and if they are from “a part of Ukraine that is unsafe they could apply for international protection”.
When asked today what parts of Ukraine Sinn Féin deems to be safe, McDonald said “nobody is going back to Ukraine unless they can go back safely”.
McDonald said if Ukraine isn’t at peace by March 2026 then there is a “methodology” that can be used to decide what areas are safe.
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