The arson attack in December on a building in Co. Galway that was supposed to accommodate people seeking asylum had a “significant impact” on offers of premises by property owners to the government to house asylum seekers, show documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The impact was noted in a departmental report from 18 December, just two days after the incident.
More than 750 people seeking asylum don’t have accommodation, show official figures as of 30 January.
An Garda Síochána posted that it was treating the incident in Galway as suspected arson and appealed to witnesses to come forward.
The Roscahill fire was one in a pattern of blazes at buildings offered for asylum shelters. Nobody has been charged for any of them yet. “Investigations are ongoing,” said a Garda spokesperson on Monday.
The government had been losing promised properties even before the fire in Galway, documents show.
Officials at the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) – the office of the Department of Children and Equality in charge of housing asylum seekers – had expressed frustration about lost offers in early December.
“Working hard to get accommodation online, however very challenging with some providers withdrawing offers of accommodation,” says a departmental report from 4 December.
John Lannon, CEO of migrants’-aid non-profit Doras, says the government needs to cut its dependency on private property owners fast and set up suitable reception centres.
“The longer it takes before they start putting those in place, the worse this situation is going to get,” he said by phone on Monday.
Beyond that, it also needs to reconsider its choice of words in messages around asylum and migration, Lannon said.
The weight of words
This is the second wave of homelessness engulfing men seeking asylum.
The first one came in early 2023, when the state ran out of places to accommodate those arriving, and men pitched tents near the International Protection Office (IPO).
The government tamed the situation over the summer.
But by 4 December, IPAS officials began voicing concerns that accommodating men had become unfeasible again, records show.
“It is highly likely that IPAS will not be in a position to provide accommodation for single male international protection applicants who present at the IPO,” says a report from that date.
Throughout last year, anti-immigrant activists used sympathetic media outlets and their own social media channels to demonise men seeking asylum, implying that they were more likely to be violent based on their places of birth and asylum statuses.
They have also pushed a narrative that immigration triggers an uptick in crime, although both older and newer research has debunked that.
Lannon, the CEO of Doras, says that if the government wants to prevent arson attacks that keep these men unaccommodated for longer, it needs to reconsider its choice of words.
“The messaging has been around the negative aspects of people coming here seeking protection and trying to undermine their rights,” he said.
The Irish Refugee Council recently published a list of responses to commonly raised questions about the asylum-seeking process in a bid to bust myths.
On Sunday, different media outlets quoted Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, a Fine Gael TD, as saying that a “crackdown” on asylum claims was coming.
Lannon says using language like that isn’t going to help IPAS find more shelters. “Talking about crackdown and wrongful applications is very unhelpful.”
Lannon says he is concerned because some politicians are also spreading harmful stereotypes about asylum seekers to ratchet up support for themselves as local, European and Dáil elections draw nearer.
“It’s an attempt to garner votes, and it’s a very short-term, ill-advised course of action,” said Lannon.
After the fire in Galway, Fianna Fáil Councillor Séamus Walsh said no one could condone criminal damage, but also seemed to justify it – saying that if it was arson, the arsonists would have thought it would make their families safer.
Another Fianna Fáil councillor, Noel Thomas, also offered a reason why people might have thought it was reasonable to burn down the building.
Both Walsh and Thomas were praised on anti-immigrant channels. Thomas was namechecked by the National Party on its Telegram channel, too.
Cops on the case
In a press release dated 6 January, An Garda Síochána said it had searched four properties in the Roscahill area of Galway, hunting evidence for the arson case.
“A number of exhibits were seized during these searches,” it says. It’s going to analyse them and have the results shape the next stages of the investigation.
On 31 December, another fire damaged a designated homeless shelter in Ringsend.
Anti-immigration activists wrongly believed it was set to accommodate people seeking asylum and celebrated its ruin on social media channels.
But so far, no one has been prosecuted for any of the arson attacks on asylum shelters.
Cian Ó Concubhair, assistant professor in criminal justice at Maynooth University, says there is actually little evidence that police punishment thwarts crime, especially for things like drug use and sex work.
In this area, though, it could probably help, said Ó Concubhair. Most people don’t want to get done for arson, he says.
But Gardaí can help IPAS to keep its earmarked asylum shelters in simpler ways, Ó Concubhair says, like by talking to property owners and promising that they will do their best to protect the buildings.
“Even if the evidence shows that they’re not actually going to do it, that kind of assurance can be very effective,” he said. “Police carry a lot of symbolic authority.”
However, like Lannon, the CEO of Doras, Ó Concubhair says it’s impossible to root out a crime just by punishing people instead of focusing on its underlying drivers.
“You cannot police your way out of these particular problems,” Ó Concubhair said.