Micheál Martin: Tents along Grand Canal are 'dangerous and unacceptable'
The encampment on the Grand Canal was set up at the weekend. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
Tents erected by asylum seekers along the Grand Canal in Dublin city are dangerous and unacceptable, the Tánaiste has said.
Micheál Martin has promised that more accommodation will be secured for the unprecedented numbers of people who are now seeking asylum here.
He said: "Those tents are not acceptable, they are not acceptable for the locality, for the residents, for the migrants because the facilities aren't there and it's dangerous."
The Government is "determined" to deal with that issue and is working to create more accommodation, Mr Martin added.
He stressed that there are much wider global issues which has led to more people seeking asylum here and across Europe.
"We are at numbers that we have never experienced before and the pressures are very severe and we have got to respond to those and we will," Mr Martin said.
The encampment on the Grand Canal was set up at the weekend. It is close to the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street, from where more than 200 asylum seekers who had been living in tents on footpaths were moved last week.
Those men were taken from the Mount Street camp to facilities at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin and Crooksling in Co Dublin.
The tents on Mount Street were dismantled and the area around the IPO was cordoned off.
