Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the reason why international protection applicants were moved from Mount Street in Dublin city centre to alternative tented accommodation was because there were no sanitary facilities or showers.
He was speaking after hundreds of international protection applicants, who had been camping in central Dublin, were moved to alternative tented accommodation in Crooksling, Co Dublin
"The alternative in Crooksling had that (sanitary facilities and showers)," he said.
"It was to move them really for health and safety reasons," Mr Varadkar added.
Speaking from Washington DC, he was asked about the ongoing protests at the Crooksling site and said: "The reason why it was chosen is because it's State-owned and was available. Unfortunately there are protests and there's risks everywhere.
"You'll recall what happened on Sandwith Street, so unfortunately no matter where people are, there's going to be certain risks but obviously security measures are put in place as well."
Asked why people are leaving Crooksling due to the isolation, Mr Varadkar said accommodation with running water and showers was "better than living on the streets".
The people had been sleeping rough outside the International Protection Office after the Government stopped providing State accommodation to international protection applicants in December.
The Department of Integration said the accommodation on offer will not just be for the St Patrick's weekend.
Volunteers had warned of a humanitarian crisis in the camp because of a lack of basic sanitation facilities.
The area on Mount Street was left strewn with abandoned tents, with many damaged and slashed. There was also a build-up of rubbish in the area.
However, at least 20 men have returned to the International Protection Office on Mount Street.
Any of those RTÉ News spoke to said they had come back from the location they were brought to at Crooksling.
They said the new location was "too remote" and it was cold when they arrived and they feared it could be colder tonight.
The men said they were promised sanitary facilities in Crooksling, but "they didn't work".
They said they understand conditions at Mount Street may be even more difficult than they were before but they prefer to stay there than in Crooksling.
There is also a small number of volunteers on Mount Street.
The volunteers said some men are being accommodated in the homes of volunteers and others have gone to mosques because they are open during the Muslim month of Ramadan for night prayers.
Crooksling move unlikely end of troubling controversy
People might have been moved from Mount Street but this is unlikely to mark the end of this troubling controversy.
Already People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith wrote to Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman over fears that the new location at Crooksling is equally inappropriate and she has concerns for the safety of those moved there.
In her letter, Ms Smith warns about the possibility of an attack by "sinister forces" who are currently "organising".
The Social Democrats believe too that people should have been given access to better accommodation and they are of the view that there are vacant beds in the system.
The party will keep this to the fore when the Dáil returns on Wednesday.
The Government for the moment at least thinks today's decision will resolve this crisis.
It maintains that a large majority of those moved to Crooksling are "content" to stay there.
The change is a long-term project it seems and another site is also set to be provided soon for tented accommodation.
It was the concerns of residents and businesses in Mount Street along with the plight of those living in the tents that led to today's action, those working within the Government suggest.
However, right now many are unconvinced that this response in anywhere near adequate.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has questioned whether this was a PR stunt ahead of St Patrick's weekend festivities.
She said she had heard reports from volunteers at Crooksling that sleeping bags and ground mats were being handed out to those at the site there, which was recently badly damaged in a suspected arson attack.
Ms Whitmore said there are real questions for the Department of Integration over how this was managed and the communications around it.
Labour's Justice spokesman Aodhán Ó Riordáin said the accommodation on offer now seemed to be a "small improvement" but was not the humane accommodation he would like to see provided to those seeking international protection.
"It feels a little bit like optics from the government that on St Patrick's weekend, that this is a blight on the national consciousness and that they had to remove it from the eyeline of Irish people," he said.
Asked about the protests and the previously suspected arson attack at the Crooksling site, Mr Ó Riordáin said: "The nature of the accommodation crisis now is that we are now fighting between the reaction of far-right elements...and those of us who really want to afford these people proper dignity and respect for their applications to be assessed in a proper manner."
Irish Refugee Council spokesman Nick Henderson said legal and ethical obligations must be met.
In a statement, he said: "This seems to be shifting people from one place to another and an attempt to place people out of sight out of mind. This would be the worst of both worlds: outside of the public eye but still in terrible conditions.
"Also, as of yesterday, 1,308 people were without accommodation. Not all people unaccommodated were at the IPO. They must also be appropriately accommodated," the statement added.
Also in a statement, Dublin City Council said that following the relocation of the International Protection Applicants, "contractors working on behalf of Dublin City Council removed the waste and tents that were left behind as they were causing an obstruction on the public footpath".
However, Fine Gael TD and former justice minister Charlie Flanagan described as "shocking" the fact that some people have returned to Mount Street from Crooksling.
Commenting on X the Government backbench TD asked was "anybody in charge?"
Call for inter-departmental group to be set up
Separately, Fianna Fáíl Senator Mary Fitzpatrick said it is "completely unacceptable" for anyone seeking asylum or refuge to be accommodated in a tent on the side of a street.
Speaking on RTÉ's Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, she said a move to Crooksling must not be a temporary solution adding that "it can't be that they have just moved them because there is a parade coming through town tomorrow".
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However, she also responded to reports that some of the people who have arrived in Crooksling are making their way back to the city centre as the site where they were moved to is "not adequately serviced".
"That would be very disappointing to hear," she said ."If that is the case that needs to be corrected, addressed immediately."
Sinn Féin TD for Carlow-Kilkenny Kathleen Funchion stated there was "turnkey accommodation" in her constituency that was supposed to be used to accommodate people and "the department said we don't need that now".
"I have heard that from the people who were willing to provide the accommodation."
She said it shows there is a real sense of "no one is in charge, no one knows what is happening and it has led to this really horrific situation".
She has called for an inter-departmental group to be set up to deal with the crisis.
Marian Harkin TD said there is a need for it to be looked at from a wider perspective and to streamline the process for assessing asylum claims, working with European counterparts.
"We have to be humane, we have to be decent, but equally we can only stretch the elastic so far."
A number of volunteers at the Mount Street site said that people camped outside the International Protection Office had been moved on suddenly and unexpectedly this morning.
Some questioned whether this was being done to clean up the capital city's image in time for tomorrow's St Patrick's Day celebrations.
Volunteer with the group Social Rights Ireland Róisín McAleer said she was "shocked" when she arrived to see the tents had been slashed before they were disposed of by contractors working for Dublin City Council.
She said she had told them: "These are not your tents, they're my tents," which she said had been largely sourced and paid for by volunteers.
She said when some of the tents were loaded onto a trailer initially and she said: "You can't do that, they're their personal belongings."
CEO of Safetynet Primary Healthcare Dr Fiona O'Reilly visited the site at Crooksling and said: "There are individual tents, new tents being erected on PVC type flooring with drainage and everyone has a tarpaulin and a roll up and sleeping bags and they're putting up their tents."
She said there were showers and toilets and food being brought in but there was only one functioning building on the site, serving as a dining room.
Asked about safety and security concerns around the site, she said she had been stopped by protesters there as she approached.
"There is tension outside and protesters which is quite intimidating for anybody trying to get in," she said.
Dr O’Reilly will be visiting the site again to assess medical needs there.
