The Government must do more to engage with people who have genuine questions over public service provision in the context of increased migration, the Taoiseach has said.
Simon Harris said he made a clear distinction between those who had legitimate concerns over increased immigration numbers, and those engaging in disorder and criminal damage at sites earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation.
His comments came in a week that saw violent clashes between rioters and gardai at the former Crown Paints factory in Coolock in north Dublin – a site proposed to be converted into an accommodation facility.
Mr Harris said the attacks on gardai were not caused by concerns over a lack of community engagement. He insisted it was instead “thuggery and lawlessness” perpetrated by people who “will exploit any divisive situation”.
A youngster throws a bottle towards gardai (Niall Carson/PA)
He said it was right that gardai responded with the “full rigours of the law”.
While the Taoiseach insisted the issue of community engagement was a separate one, he acknowledged the Government did need to do more on that front.
“I think we do need to do more as a government in terms of community engagement,” he said.
“I’m very clearly drawing a line down the middle here because I’m not conflating the two (community engagement and those engaged in violence). I refuse to conflate the two, I find that a despicable concept.
“But I do think when it comes to community engagement now I’m very eager to support Minister O’Gorman (Integration minister Roderic O’Gorman) in providing more resourcing, that we could have more people working on the issue of community engagement.
“We have to recognise here that the overwhelming majority of people in this country are decent. The overwhelming majority of people in this country understand the benefits of migration.
“It is a good thing. I’m not going to go down the road of making mistakes that other governments of the past and other countries did in relation to migration.
“But we also have to recognise that if you’re living in a small town or a small village and hundreds of new people move in, whether that’s in a new housing estate or through migration, of course that raises legitimate questions that people ask. What does that mean for the school (etc)?
“We have to be ready to engage, to engage more on that as well.
“I also think this summer we’re going to see something quite important happen, and it’s not without challenge, but we are going to see a number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, and community centres that were being used for migration being put back into public use.
“So yes, we have a lot of work to do in relation to this.”