Council supports campaign to end direct provision

Cork City Council has committed to supporting the national campaign to end Direct Provision, following the passing of a motion at the council’s most recent meeting.

The motion, put forward by Green Party Cllr Honore Kamegni, called on the council to support the campaign to “abolish direct provision, including the closure of all International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) centres”.

It also called for residents to be granted to right to work, and for the council to “engage with the relevant authorities to relocate residents to maximise the more spacious existing centre near the Kinsale Road Roundabout”.

International Protection applicants are currently allowed to apply for a work permit if they have been waiting for a first-instance decision for at least nine months. Cllr Kamegni said that he will be proposing that the period be reduced to two months.

He also said the Kinsale Road centre should be used to take in families from other locations in Cork that are experiencing overcrowding.

He said the council “can engage directly with IPAS and the Department of Justice to push for clarity on standards, capacity and timelines, and to argue for alternatives that support dignity, family life and real integration”.

“There is a broad view on the council that the current system is not fit for purpose. People seeking protection should not be left for years without the right to work or support themselves or their families.”

However, the motion was met with criticism from some. Fine Gael Cllr Shane O’Callaghan said while he agreed with the aspiration of the motion, it was unrealistic to call for moving families out of direct provision in the middle of a housing shortage. He said he was voting for the motion on the understanding that it was “aspirational”.

People Before Profit – Solidarity Cllr Brian McCarthy supported the motion, but criticised the proposal being put forward by the Green Party specifically, saying that the party failed to do what the motion was calling for while in government between 2020 and 2024.

“They pledged to abolish direct provision and said ending this system was a key commitment secured by the party in the Programme for Government. But they failed to deliver on that commitment.

“The Green Party have a habit of calling for something from opposition and pledging action if they get voted in, then doing nothing about it when they do, only to go back to pledging to do the thing they didn’t do when they could have if they get voted in again,” he said.

Responding, Green Party Cllr Oliver Moran said: “It's fair of Brian to ask about the efforts of my colleague, Roderic O'Gorman, in attempting to end direct provision when he was minister. That was overtaken by the events of the war in Ukraine that required housing over 110,000 refugees in a short period, as well as regular asylum applications rising from 13,000 in 2023 to over 18,000 in 2024.”

The Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU), which represents a number of direct provision residents, said while they support calls on the council to apply pressure on the Government, they said there needs to be direct action.

“If councillors are serious about ending direct provision, they must act where they do have power: build public homes on public land, bring empty council housing back into use, and change policy so that people evicted from direct provision can access emergency accommodation in their community rather than being made homeless,” said a spokesperson.

They took issue with Cllr O’Callaghan’s comments saying that “the housing crisis is the result of political failure, not the presence of refugees and asylum seekers. It is disingenuous to use it to justify the continuation of a cruel and degrading system.”

They objected to the proposal to relocate families to Kinsale Road, saying it sounded “uncomfortably like a localised version of the forced relocations and evictions we are already seeing, people uprooted with little notice, stripped of choice, and cut off from their communities, schools, and supports.”

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.