Irish Examiner view: Bad week for Anglo-Irish relations

Micheál Martin said he believes that the high percentage of asylum seekers now entering Ireland from Northern Ireland is a result of the Rwanda strategy being pursued by Britain

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that the increase in numbers travelling to the Republic from Northern Ireland shows that the deterrent effect of the Rwanda plan works.

It has not been an encouraging week for Anglo-Irish relations, with old wounds festering and new grievances arriving.

Yesterday, the Legacy Act came into force in Northern Ireland, which shuts down some 38 inquests into killings which occurred during the Troubles. This was despite the legislation being opposed by Northern Ireland’s main political parties, victims, and human rights groups, and the Irish Government.

This week we have also seen the impact of the British government’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers in that country to Rwanda. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said he believes that the high percentage of asylum seekers now entering Ireland from Northern Ireland is a result of the Rwanda strategy being pursued by Britain.

Clearly, Britain is using Ireland cynically as a solution to its own difficulties in this area. The morality of sending asylum seekers to central Africa is questionable in the first place, but the UK is now using this as a threat to hold over the heads of vulnerable people and exploiting its only land border with an EU country to move its problems out of sight and out of mind.

British prime minister Rishi Sunak has even claimed that the increase in numbers travelling to the Republic from Northern Ireland shows that the deterrent effect of the law is working.

This takes cynicism to an entirely new level and is a ploy worth of a totalitarian state: Frighten those seeking asylum with the prospect of expulsion to another country, nudge them towards a nearby jurisdiction, and claim success.

Mr Sunak’s Conservative Party is expected to be trounced at the upcoming general election across the water, and he is obviously seeking to impress the Little England constituency with these measures.

Our Government has not covered itself in glory here, with Mr Martin contradicting Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s figures earlier this week, and the latter must now bring forward legislation to bolster Ireland’s legal entitlement to return refugees to Britain.

However, Ireland is not conducting itself with callous disregard for human beings like our neighbours. Perfidious Albion indeed.

Housing crisis

Every day seems to bring another iteration of the housing crisis. Only yesterday this newspaper shed light on yet another aspect of this Hydra-headed beast: Mick Clifford reported that gardaí are investigating allegations that a planning report was doctored in An Bord Pleanála to try to ensure the development concerned had a better chance of being approved.

An even starker indication of the housing crisis could be seen in another story — across a two-month period over 15,000 bids were made on the 75 local authority houses advertised on Cork City Council’s choice-based letting system.

As reported by Eoin English, the figures also show that 14 of the individual choice-based letting homes recorded over 500 bids each, while in one specific housing estate in Killeens 945 bids were made on seven properties in one week.

These are staggering statistics. It is beyond a cliché to claim this fact or that figure represents an indictment of our political system or social structure, but that is the only appropriate description here. 

Behind those figures lurk the stories of thousands of families who are trapped, and trapped is the correct word.

These thousands of applications each represent circumstances which are testing families and individuals to the limit. They represent people who are homeless, who are crammed into family homes with other relatives, or who have accommodation with little or no security of tenure.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould obtained the figures and added some detail to underline the urgency of this situation: “People often contact my office just after midnight when these properties go up on the choice-based letting system. They wait up because they are desperate and because they need somewhere to live.”

This is a pin-sharp illustration of a crisis: The statistics outlined above are grim enough, but the image of desperate families staying up past midnight to try to access social housing is daunting.

So is the realisation that we seem no closer to a resolution.

25 years of Lyric FM

It is 25 years since Lyric FM began broadcasting, and broke new ground as the only dedicated classical and arts music radio station in Ireland.  Its anniversary was duly marked this week by a gala concert in Limerick.

The concert was held in Limerick because, of course, Lyric is based on Shannonside. The radio station is an outlier in that it is not based at RTÉ’s main Dublin campus, and is visible proof of a commitment to the regions. More evidence of that commitment would be welcomed by many people who are not based in and around the capital.

Lyric has carved out an enviable reputation and a strong identity of its own in the last quarter of a century. The strength of that identity was seen when cuts to RTÉ services were proposed several years ago: There was an immediate and angry reaction to suggestions the station might be relocated and its Limerick studio shut down. Those plans were soon abandoned, and the station has flourished since.

25 years is a milestone well worth marking. Home to the likes of Marty Whelan, Aedin Gormley, Liz Nolan, and Niall Carroll, Lyric is a treasure on the airwaves. Here’s to the next 25.