Ireland: Local Authorities no longer want to house migrants, state body warns

Local authorities in Ireland are resisting allowing the country’s central government to house migrants in their areas, an internal state report has claimed. Ireland’s Department of Integration is privately warning that local authorities in the country are becoming ever more hesitant to help house large numbers of foreign migrants arriving in the country, a report on Tuesday has claimed. The reluctance is said to be down to a lack of resources to house the thousands of arrivals, though the spike in hostility from the Irish public may also be playing a role at this stage. According to a report by the Irish Times, authorities say there is now a “growing reluctance” amongst local officials to allow migrants to move into their area, with the report citing fears that new arrivals would put “pressure on services” such as schools and doctors. The report is bad news for the country’s open-borders government, which is now struggling to house hundreds of migrants after they vowed to allow in limitless numbers of refugees and asylum seekers last year. Ministers are now even looking at buying barges to house migrant arrivals on, with a similar method soon to be implemented by officials in the neighbouring UK. However, although the migrant crisis is putting a substantial strain on resources in the country, a mere lack of housing and facilities is not the only problem with mass migration ministers are now dealing with. Over the last number of months, Ireland has seen a growing number of anti-mass migration protests, a number of which have caused severe disruption to the operations of ad-hoc migrant facilities set up by left-wing officials. With such protests failing to force authorities to abandon their open borders ambitions, some communities in the country have opted to take matters into their own hands. The apex of such action occurred late last week, with locals in Dublin’s inner city holding a significant protest outside a migrant squat that was set up by left-wing activists in a traditionally working-class area. With members of the country’s police force seemingly unwilling to dismantle the impromptu-tent village, members of the local community are said to have eventually forced progressive activists to abandon the outpost under police protection, before dismantling the migrant settlement themselves. Such direct action has provoked outrage amongst politicians operating in mainstream political parties, though the country’s Prime Minister has since admitted that the country’s police force simply does not have the resources to stop locals from dismantling such settlements.