The Chairperson of Advisory Group on Direct Provision has called for a public discussion on the treatment of refugees in Ireland.
Catherine Day, who led an advisory group whose recommendations were key to the Government's White Paper on ending direct provision, was speaking at a conference hosted by the Children's Rights Alliance.
Ms Day said the commitment in the Programme for Government to end direct provision had been "knocked sideways" by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
While she acknowledged that recent events had overwhelmed a stressed system, she said the White Paper was still a good policy in changed circumstances.
She acknowledged that one element that was not covered by the White Paper, was the need for surge capacity, which does not exist.
Ms Day said this year had shown that preparation for a surge in arrivals should be "on standby".
While she noted a lot of good will towards refugees in the country she said that good will needed to be organised, supported and channeled in communities.
"Otherwise we'll see unscrupulous people exploiting the legitimate concerns of neighbourhoods", she said.
Ms Day stressed the importance of communication with communities to "get rid of fears".
She said decisions should not be taken over people's heads, that they needed to be informed about who will be coming and how their local services will be adapted.
She noted the State's legal, international and EU responsibilities, which she said needed to be delivered.
"It can't contract out these services to the private sector", she said, pointing out that unlike the State, NGOs do not have the capacity or responsibility to protect those seeking International Protection.
Ms Day said the State needed to use emergency powers to undertake rapid construction to accommodate new arrivals, including decent own door accommodation while applications are being assessed.
She called for a whole of Government approach to deal with the issue urgently in the context of its legal and international obligations and said it should not be left to one minister and one department.
Ms Day pointed out that Minister Roderic O'Gorman and his staff at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth required support because they were doing "so much with little resources".
She suggested the creation of a bespoke plan between the Department of Housing and Local Authorities so that each county that takes in a number of people can cope with regarding overall services and population.
Ms Day said Ireland needed to stop viewing International Protection as a temporary issue "because it is not".
"Safe wealthy parts of the world are going to see refugees, fleeing violence, persecution and climate change. We've got to face up to that reality and build these people into long term population planning", she said.
She called for services to be enhanced to meet the population.
"We need to accept the Irish population will be bigger than we previous thought and their needs must to be met on an equal basis.", she said.
