Darragh O'Brien: Blockades of refugee accommodation 'not appropriate'

The Housing Minister was speaking in Swords on Monday amid reports that there has been protests at a new facility in nearby Santry which is due to house refugees

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien speaks to the media at Millers Glen in Swords

Blockades of refugee accommodation are "not appropriate" the Housing Minister has said.

Darragh O'Brien was speaking in Swords on Monday amid reports that there has been protests at a new facility in nearby Santry which is due to house refugees.

Mr O'Brien said that protests are allowed for under the law, but doing so outside of facilities or blocking roads as has happened in Clare over the last week was "not appropriate".

“I would say to people that blockades or protests outside of these centres is not appropriate," he said.

"Protest is fine. I respect the right to protest. Where it is an appropriate place and when appropriate, people are allowed to protest.

“But they’re not allowed to intimidate.” 

Mr O'Brien said that growing numbers of international protection applications would likely be seen as the number of conflicts globally grows.

“If you look at the number of conflicts, right across the world, they unfortunately are increasing — we’ve never had so many conflicts, right across across Africa and in Europe now as well.

“People are fleeing and they are looking for safety. And thankfully we're in a position as a country to provide that safety.

“As I said, the vast majority of people in this country support what is being done in that space. And I reject some of the politicisation of this."

Asked about his desire to see unused office space converted for housing, Mr O'Brien said that he had written to Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney on the issue but could not say how many homes it would deliver.

“I think we’ve got to look at all avenues and to see what things can be done to look at where there may be surplus office space, and what can be repurposed into housing. But we need to actually increase our housing supply. We know that and we’re doing that, and it’s about further additionality, in that space.

“We’re going to pursue this measure, but as I said, it’s about using vacant stock, bringing it back in and looking at other buildings that would be better used for residential, but also building our new stock which thankfully, we are doing and we’re doing at scale now, a scale that hasn’t been seen in decades.

“But I think most people will know, particularly across our cities where we see people are working differently and we have more remote working too, that there may be opportunities where office developments have been built that can be repurposed."