Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that once asylum seekers sleeping on Mount Street in Dublin are given accommodation the encampment around the International Protection Office will not be allowed to return.
Mr Harris told the Dáil that those sleeping rough will be offered "safe shelter" elsewhere and added that tents will not be allowed to be erected after that point.
"There's two aspects to Mount Street," he said.
"The first needs to be to provide everybody who is in tents - vulnerable people - with access to accommodation and a safer setting as quickly as possible. And I know that my colleague Minister [for Integration Roderic] O'Gorman is working very actively on that.
"The second thing, though, once we clear Mount Street and provide people with a safer setting and access to sanitation, we do need to make sure that the laws of the land are applied and it's not allowed to happen again.
"Because we don't live in a country where makeshift shanty towns are allowed just to develop.
"So I'm telling you very clearly, the plan is to provide the people on Mount Street with better accommodation and access to sanitation.
"And then not to allow a situation where ad-hoc-ery can come about, in terms of the development of accommodation. I think that's a really important thing to do."
He was replying to Labour leader Ivana Bacik who said it was "absolutely scandalous" that the former Baggot Street hospital site was empty when people were living in tents on Mount Street without access to sanitation.
She said she had visited the site today and that while residents and businesses were sympathetic to the plight of the asylum seekers, they were deeply frustrated at the conditions around the International Protection Office.
Ms Bacik said she would welcome a commitment to relocate rough sleepers from Mount Street but said she needed the Taoiseach to say when that would happen.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said the Government had been working "day and night" to provide accommodation for those seeking International Protection and homeless people.
"When they are provided with that accommodation, it's important that we don’t see scenes like we are seeing now at Mount Street again, that it cannot reemerge that we have hundreds of tents not just outside the International Protection Office, but outside peoples’ and businesses," she said.
"It’s a hugely challenging situation where we are housing thousands of people who are seeking protection.
"Every effort is being made to make sure that those people get that accommodation."
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Residents 'appalled at encampment'
A residents' group in Dublin's south inner city has called for people staying in tents on Mount Street to be moved to "more appropriate accommodation or interim shelter".
In a statement, the Residents' Network Mount and Grattan Street Areas said: "We are appalled at the encampment of asylum seekers established in our neighbourhood, how it has been allowed to develop and the lack of communication and response of the authorities to our concerns."
The group, set up this month, said it is "sympathetic to and supportive" of people seeking asylum but added it does "not accept that an encampment of tents around our neighbourhood is acceptable or even legal".
A number of businesses in the area have said they support the residents' call.
Co-owner of Mamma Mia restaurant Ruth Hamilton said the growing number of tents is having "a massive impact".
She said her business will be 15 years in operation in September, but "unfortunately, if things don't change with the situation, we're going to be forced to close our doors".
Ms Hamilton said there are more and more tents on the streets every day.
"People are nervous coming into us. Our bookings are down over 60%, which has a massive impact on our restaurant, and Dublin City Council are still expecting us to pay full rates."
She called for the International Protection Office to be moved to a bigger location.
"They can't handle the volume of people in that small office that are based in now. They need to go to different location."
She also said that the tents should be "removed permanently".
Owner of The Punnett Food Emporium Michael Finlay said the situation is "most certainly" having an impact on his business.
He said concerns regarding the presence of the tents are "a community-wide problem" and described the issue as "a disgraceful situation for the asylum seekers themselves".
"Everybody's concerned for their wellbeing, but it has escalated in the last two, three months and certainly in the last two, three weeks, to the point where tensions are actually really quite high," Mr Finlay said.
"It's a situation that has reached a tipping point, I feel."
"It would just be nice to get some feedback, some engagement from the government because ultimately, this is an issue that has stemmed from failed policies."
Mr Finlay said that it is "a national emergency".
"Let's be clear, it's not good for anybody, asylum seekers, the businesses, the residents, the people working in the buildings. I can't believe we're having this conversation in 2024 in Ireland."
'We're talking about a massive tent city'
The Chairperson of South Georgian Core Residents Association said the number of tents around the International Protection Office "has grown to a completely unprecedented level".
Kevin Byrne said the situation has been ongoing for about 14 months and he said local people have been "raising it as individual residents and [as a] residents' association over that time".
He said: "One of the frustrations has been lack of engagement from the authorities on it."
Mr Byrne said multiple side streets are now covered in tents.
"The current count is maybe about 220 tents, maybe more, and more coming every day. So we're not talking about a small situation like where you might have a homeless tent on the corner. We're talking about a massive tent city, which has huge impacts."
He said residents and businesses have a lot of sympathy with the men who are in the tents.
"It's a humanitarian disaster for them but it is a humanitarian disaster for residents and businesses in the area too."
Mr Byrne has called for the tents to be "cleared immediately" and for the asylum seekers to be moved to a more appropriate site "somewhere where there can be security, sanitation and basic services provided, which can't be done here on the city streets".
He said the residents and businesses are "reluctantly" looking at legal action if the tents are not removed.
"Out of sympathy with the men here, we've tried to put up with it as best we can, but after over a year of this we're left with no choice but to look at that route."
"It's clear now looking at the scale of what's around us here today that the IPO can no longer safely operate from this location, and as a result, we'd also be looking at it to be moved," he added.
