Costello Warns of Ghettoisation of Dublin's North Inner City

21 November 2005

by Cllr Joe Costello

“Figures published this week which show that two-thirds of asylum seekers are housed in the Dublin city centre area and as many are living around the Mountjoy Square electoral area as live in the more affluent Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown,” Labour’s Deputy Joe Costello has said."When you combine this figures with all the other services in the area of local housing it shows how Dublin city, including the North inner city, has accommodated 27 per cent of all asylum seekers in Dublin 2002. “There is a high density of institutional services, homeless hostels, jails and health board services. There is also a high concentration of people who are vulnerable in this constituency and there is a real danger that there is a ghettoisation process taking place. “Hostility and racism will develop following this approach of placing the vast majority of asylum seekers in one area. The whole city should be taking its share with an equal distribution across the city. Many of these areas, such my own constituency in the north inner city, are already suffering from serious problems such as housing and unemployment. The current Government policy is not conducive to integration and this must be re-examined.!It is not enough for the Taoiseach to express concern about these figures; he need to do something immediately to counteract this. By allowing the more affluent areas to renege on their responsibilities, we are creating ghettos it is as simple as that.”