Speaking to the media at Corrine Mart in Fermoy, County Cork, he said Ireland is facing a challenging situation as large numbers of people come to the country amid “restrictions” on the provision of accommodation.
This comes as more tents were set up overnight along the banks of Dublin's Grand Canal, less than 24 hours after an encampment was removed from the area.
About 30 tents were set up yesterday after asylum seekers were moved to tent accommodation on state land.
Taoiseach Simon Harris with Fine Gael Cork County councillors, local election candidates and Southern European candidate John Mullins of Ireland, pictured in Corrin Mart, Co Cork. Fig. Darragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
The tents are set up between McCartney Bridge and Leeson Street Bridge.
“Much of this will look like tents with sanitary facilities in public locations, but a safer environment, both from a public health perspective and from a legal perspective,” the Taoiseach said.
Mr Harris said other options available to the Government, in addition to housing, were being explored so that a sustainable immigration policy could be put in place.
Amid some tensions, the Prime Minister said it is important the public is aware that there are “very vulnerable” people coming to Ireland seeking protection.
He said his government's responsibility is to show that there are rules and that the system is “fair and robust.”
“Immigration has benefited this country and continues to benefit this country, but people also want to know that we have a rules-based system. They want to know when someone comes here that they can be processed quickly, that they can get a 'yes', if they get a 'yes' they can contribute to Irish society. But if they get a 'no' then the rules work in that regard too,” the Taoiseach said.
Mr Harris said there was no update on the Government's position on asylum seekers entering Ireland from Britain via Northern Ireland.
“The actual position now is that the minister will propose legislation to regularize the agreement that is already in force,” the prime minister said.
He said the “most important thing Ireland could do to successfully tackle immigration is processing times that ensure people get “clarity and certainty” in a speedy way.
A major effort was made in the early hours yesterday to move 163 people into government-provided accommodation in Dublin. One of these locations was in Crooksling, the other was the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum.
The makeshift encampment had developed along the Grand Canal following the removal of a 'tent city' on Mount Street, near the International Protection Office. Barriers were set up to prevent further tent pitching.
Tents were also set up in Ringsend and East Wall within six hours of yesterday's evacuation.
Speaking at a press conference shortly after yesterday's Grand Canal clearance operation, Mr Harris said the camps that were developing should not be left in place.
“Those days are over. Those days are over. That's not going to happen and the government is absolutely united on this,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Harris insisted the barriers erected along the banks of the canal after the tents were removed were not a long-term plan.
“The multi-agency response includes a number of different actions. It is not about erecting barriers for a long time [to] parts of our city, but in the short term this may be a requirement.”
Yesterday, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said in the Dáil that the issue of tents would be addressed “wherever they arise”.
“It is not good for migrants, not good for asylum seekers, nor for the residents, nor for the general environment. I just don't think it's acceptable,” Mr Martin said. “There is a plan to tackle tents decisively, wherever they occur.”
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the government was processing more applications for international protection (IP) and more emergency accommodation was needed for those seeking protection.
“In the short term it's about the decision where we put more people into the parts of our government so that applications … can be processed more quickly,” he said on RTÉ's Tomorrow Ireland.
“We have doubled resources, we have tripled the number of cases being processed. As we do that, we must provide more emergency shelter.”
Mr Donohoe said while there was a plan to create 14,000 state emergency shelter beds and implement the EU Migration Pact, the response took place amid multiple wars in the world.
“I hope you have a large supply of fences, Tánaiste” – Jennifer Whitmore tells Micheál Martin as the Grand Canal tents are cleared away
“There is a plan, but this plan is set in the context of a war in Sudan, wars in the Middle East, a war in Ukraine and now more and more people have moved around the world since World War II,” said the minister.
Mr Donohoe said Ireland had previously seen 3,000 IP applicants seeking asylum here each year, but that number had more than doubled so far in 2024.
He added: “That is why, in the short term, what we are doing in terms of processing and emergency shelter is necessary. I believe that people like those we just talked about should not sit in tents on the street or by the canalS.
“We are going to get them into an alternative, but it is emergency accommodation while we are building up state-owned and managed beds that the government has committed to.”
The government has said it will focus urgently on finding suitable locations to house asylum seekers to prevent repeated tent encampments.
HSE properties, land owned by the Ministry of Defense and sites previously excluded for housing are among those to be considered, a meeting of the Taoiseach and agencies involved in the asylum system was told yesterday .
During the meeting, the Taoiseach was adamant that a “silo approach” by government departments – largely leaving the problem to officials in Roderic O'Gorman's Department for Integration – “must stop now”.
A spokesperson said the urgent focus would be on freeing up more state land to accommodate arrivals.
This would even include sites identified by the Land Development Agency for housing but not deemed suitable for such development.
A particular target seems to be the brownfield locations close to the city center, because arrivals want to meet there.
Commenting on the encampment issue, a source said: “There is an acute awareness that the feeling among migrants seems to be that the quickest way to be dealt with is to join such a setting.”