Godfrey's Gospel: Asylum case could see state liable for compensation

I HAVE come to the conclusion that I may be a racist without knowing it. Sounds stupid, doesn’t it, but last week I read something which got my blood boiling, leading me to that thought.

It revolves around asylum seekers. On the face of it, you would think any right-thinking person would be in favour of helping those in trouble, especially if it was a life-or-death situation.

Irish people have never been found wanting in that regard. We contribute more per head of population than anywhere else in the world whenever there is a crisis and gladly accepted people coming to these shores looking for help. But, as we all know, that friendly welcome is beginning to wear thin.

Please don’t mix up my opening statement as a means of condoning what happened to a young person from India a couple of weeks ago, who was savagely beaten and left with severe injuries by a few local yobbos from Tallaght, just because the colour of that young man’s skin was different from theirs. That young man had to pay thousands of euros to come to this country and was doing so in the hope of earning a decent living for himself and, perhaps, improving the lot of his family back in his home country.

All sounds very familiar to what the Irish did for years when young people from here couldn’t find a decent job at home and instead headed for England, the USA or Australia in search of a better life and the chance to send some money back home.

I spoke to a young Indian from Goa, now working in the hospitality industry in Ireland, who paid an agent in India several thousand euro just to get the proper documentation to work in Ireland and who faces a further bill of nearly €10,000 to get similar documentation for his wife and two children to join him here. But he is prepared to do that because, even though the hospitality industry here is not a particularly well-paying sector, it pays an awful lot more than what he can earn back in Goa.

When I say that I think I may be a racist and find my blood boiling, I was referring specifically to a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union which could result in the state – us, the Irish people – facing compensation claims from hundreds of asylum seekers left homeless after being denied accommodation by the authorities.

The judgment stems from two test cases brought before the High Court by men seeking international protection, who alleged the government breached their rights under the EU Reception Conditions Directive and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Both men applied for asylum in 2023, but the state denied them accommodation. Each were issued with a €25 voucher and were deemed ineligible for the standard daily allowance, which left them sleeping rough in Dublin.

I remember it well: tent villages popped up all over the place as the state struggled to manage the influx of asylum seekers turning up at the International Protection Office on Lower Mount Street.

For some strange reason, the majority of the people coming into this country didn’t appear to have come through the ports or airports, where they could have registered, but came by train from Northern Ireland.

One stipulation when seeking international protection is that you do so at your first point of entry. As we discovered when thousands started turning up in Ireland, many of those had, in fact, originally got off a plane or boat in the UK, but then, thanks to a decision by the UK government to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda, they packed their bags and headed for Ireland.

Here are a few hard facts about how much we have spent taking care of asylum seekers and others in the recent past. Last year, the Irish government spent a total of €1 billion on accommodation and other associated costs on asylum seekers and people from Ukraine fleeing war.

For the first three months of this year, that figure was over €400 million, so I don’t think any right-thinking person could say we are failing to look after people. We are doing the best we can.

The government has even gone so far as to purchase CityWest Hotel for €148 million because it believes it will get better value for money doing that than leasing it from its owners, who, by the way, got €70 million for running the establishment last year alone.

A further €9 million was paid out last year to the owners of Mosney holiday village to accommodate asylum seekers, and next on the list as highest earners was the Holiday Inn Hotel at Dublin Airport at more than €8 million.

Granted, not everyone was taken care of, but Irish-born people who have lived here all their lives are equally struggling and, sadly, some of those people find themselves homeless. Homelessness existed in this country long before we were given annual figures for asylum seekers looking for assistance. Last year alone, that number was 32,934, including children. 

I’m sure we would all like to see every last one of those people, provided they are genuine cases, housed, fed and taken care of, but that’s like looking for Utopia and we all know that doesn’t exist.

Let me stress again, irrespective of what we spend or who gets what or who is short of something, no-one has the right to attack anyone else because of their ethnicity, but I do find it a little strange that someone looking for asylum knew about the EU Reception Conditions Directive or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

I’m often amazed how some people always seem to know their ‘rights’ and what they are ‘entitled’ to.