Over half of those left at controversial Athlone asylum facility could begin to leave next week
At the High Court on Monday, senior counsel Aoife Carroll, for the government, told Ms Justice Emily Farrell that of the remaining 125 people at the accommodation centre, 70 people had received offers of alternative accommodation and that the court should know their answers next week.
Advertisement
Last month, Ms Carroll told the court that 137 people were in emergency accommodation at the facility, but that figures were dropping as alternative accommodation was being sought.
The High Court action was taken by Independent Ireland councillor for Athlone-Moate District Paul Hogan, who successfully applied to the court in December for a judicial review, arguing that the expedited development was unlawful. The State has conceded to the court that the statutory instrument used to expedite the construction of the facility was "invalid" and is working on repairing legislation.
A Statutory Instrument is a secondary legislation made by a Minister, modifying or supplementing existing laws.
Cllr Hogan is taking the case against the office of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Advertisement
Cllr Hogan claimed the Minister failed to adequately "screen" the project for potential environmental impacts and that the Minister lacked the expertise to carry out such assessments in such an expedited manner.
Protests have been held in Athlone over the plan to further develop army-tent accommodation for a possible 1,000 asylum seekers.
Last month, Ms Justice Farrell said she would defer judgment, quashing the use of the Statutory Instrument used to develop the emergency accommodation at Lissywollen in Athlone, Co Westmeath.
Ms Justice Farrell had said she wanted to wait for updates and to see draft legislation from the Oireachtas. The government submitted it intended to remedy the legal issue over the bypassing of environmental assessments for the accommodation.
Advertisement
Today, Ms Carroll said the department was continuing to work to reduce the number of people at the facility, but that there was "significant pressure" on the system.
Regarding the repairing legislation, Ms Carroll said "we have not made the progress hoped".
Ms Carroll said that "significant work" had been done on a general scheme and that it was hoped this would go for drafting in preparation for legislation.
Ms Carroll again asked for the court not to make final orders in the matter and to maintain the status quo pending the legislation, which is hoped to be put to the Dáil in November.
Advertisement
Ms Justice Farrell adjourned the matter to next week but warned she could not keep deferring final orders when the government had "ample opportunity" to put legislation before the Dáil.
David O'Brien BL, for Cllr Hogan, said the government indicating "loose dates" had been "a regrettable motif" in the case.
Any November date for the legislation to come before the Dáil, which was indicated to the court in May, had been initially "unrealistic... now, it is at the point of untenable" and his client was left "without a modicum of explanation", he said.
Cllr Hogan claims the ministerial process employed was "unlawful, irrational and a breach of fair procedures".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Social care roles are being filled, but the sector is still concerned. Here's why
The number of jobs in adult social care being filled by British nationals has fallen by 85,000 since the pandemic, highlighting significant recruitment challenges for the already strained sector, according to a new report. Posts filled by British nationals since 2020/2021 fell by 7 per cent, with 30,000 in the most recent year alone, according to Skills for Care, the strategic workforce development and planning body for adult social care in England. The organisation clarifies that its figures measure posts filled rather than the number of individual people, acknowledging that one person may hold multiple roles or share positions. The findings come despite a government pledge to "end the reliance on overseas recruitment". However, the latest analysis suggests a critical need to focus on "how we attract and keep more people domestically". In rules which came into effect last week, new applications for care workers and senior care workers under the skilled worker visa were closed, as part of the government's efforts in 'restoring control over the immigration system'. In April, the government implemented new rules saying that care providers would have to prove they had attempted to recruit a worker from within England before looking overseas. The latest Skills for Care report said domestic recruitment 'remains challenging for the sector' and that the new immigration rules from July 'will make it more challenging for the sector to continue to grow in line with demand'. The organisation re-stated its previous projection that an extra 470,000 people will need to be employed in the sector by 2040 to meet the needs of a growing older population. The report said: 'A substantial increase in recruitment and retention of staff with a British nationality would likely be required to achieve this level of growth.' Under the previous Conservative government, a ban on international care workers bringing dependants to the UK led to a sharp drop in health and care visas in the months after the measure came in. The latest Skills for Care report said an estimated 50,000 people arrived in the UK in 2024/25 to start direct care-providing roles in the independent sector, down from 105,000 the previous year. Of the 50,000 recruited internationally, an estimated 10,000 came on a health and care worker visa, while the rest came on other routes, potentially including student visas and family members of people arriving in the UK on other visa types. Overall, the number of adult social care posts filled between 2023/24 and 2024/25 rose by 52,000 to 1.6 million. The vacancy rate has also fallen to 7.0 per cent, with 111,000 vacant posts on any given day in the year to March. This is down from an 8.3 per cent vacancy rate in the year to March 2024, when there were 126,000 vacant posts on any given day. The vacancy rate hit a high of 152,000 vacant posts a day in the 12 months to March 2022. Oonagh Smyth, Skills for Care's chief executive, said while the falling vacancy rate is 'encouraging', the sector 'can't afford to be complacent'. She said: 'We need to protect ourselves from the wild swings in vacancy rates driven by the wider economic picture. 'It's important to recognise that, while the vacancy rate in social care has reduced, it's still three times that of the wider economy.' She urged investment in 'stable recruitment and retention' and efforts to make roles 'more attractive to the domestic workforce over the long term' including through development opportunities, improving the quality of roles and supporting positive cultures within organisations. 'We know there's lots more to do, though. Everyone, from Government to care providers, from regulators to frontline staff, has a role to play in building the workforce we need to deliver the best possible care and support for the people in our communities who draw on local services.'
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Getting railways on track is some task
That's the trains for you. Have a squint at the government publicity for its new transport quango and there's some Union Jack-flagged graphic, saying: 'Great British Railways — coming soon'. Only soon? What's the problem this time? Signal failure? Leaves on the line? The wrong kind of snow? None of them, apparently. Just the time it takes to pass into law the Railways Bill. It will, the government says, create a 'single 'directing mind' bringing track and train together', with GBR running a largely state-owned passenger railway, even if the rolling stock and freight companies will stay private. Already ministers are taking back control of what once were 14 private passenger franchises, most recently South Western and C2C, when their contracts expire. Listen to Heidi Alexander's transport department and GBR will end 'decades of fragmentation and private profiteering'. Yet, you shouldn't really need a new report from Tony Lodge at the Centre for Policy Studies to spot that GBR — a product of Labour's state-knows-best mentality — risks 'morphing into the ghost of British Rail'. Or that it seems a 'solution looking for a problem': one prioritising rail nationalisation above 'efficient operation'. Ministers' antipathy to private 'open access' operators, running without government contracts or subsidy — Hull Trains, Lumo and Grand Central, say, on the east coast line — tells you that. • Virgin Trains' attempt to get back on to the railways blocked Sure, privatisation had its faults, the most glaring the separation of train and track. And some of the passenger growth would have happened anyway. Yet, as Lodge points out, in the two decades up to the pandemic, passenger journeys rose by 107 per cent, services were up by 32 per cent and the private sector invested £14 billion in new trains. Of course, some private outfits failed. A former Labour government shunted Railtrack into the buffers, aghast at its £7 billion of debts, even if its state-owned successor, Network Rail, now has a net £61 billion. Then, there was a trio of financial derailments on the East Coast line: GNER, National Express and Virgin Trains. Yet, franchising largely worked until ministers started to micro-manage it, while also requiring train operators bidding for contracts to forecast the economy 15 years out: a feat patently beyond the Treasury, the Bank of England or the Office for Budget Responsibility. Whether in public or private hands, three problems stand out: the railways need too much subsidy, given they account for just 2 per cent of passenger journeys; capacity is not being used efficiently enough; and ticketing is a mess, with many fares too pricey. All are interrelated. But there's nothing yet from Alexander or GBR to address them. The operational railway needed £12.5 billion of taxpayer subsidy in the year to March 2024 (the latest figures): up by £4.6 billion versus the year to March 2020. A key reason? That even if passenger numbers are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, working from home has killed season ticket sales — 13 per cent of journeys in the year to March 2025 versus 34 per cent pre-Covid. As Lodge points out, that puts the emphasis on three things: new income streams, such as exploiting rail's 52,000-hectare estate to use unused land for everything from solar power to property schemes; shifting capacity from commuters to leisure travellers; and a simplified ticketing app that includes such innovations as a loyalty scheme. He says 'one of GBR's first tasks should be to carry out a full train utilisation study' to match capacity to 'in-demand' services. And he's right that, here, the government is showing 'misguided hostility' to open-access operators. Private companies are far more likely than civil servants to spot a gap in the market for a new service. And the latest annual figures from the state-backed LNER suggest that, rather than eat into its sales, competition on the east coast is driving them up — from £867 million to top £1 billion. Notably, while Britain clamps down on open access, Europe is going in the opposite direction, with France, Spain and Italy finding it cuts fares and lifts service frequency. What, too, of the political risk with GBR? As Lodge notes: 'Creating GBR gives ministers both complete responsibility for the railway and all of the blame' — not least if the unions bring the network to a halt. Alexander is far from proving that her new quango is the best route to getting the railways back on track. Luckily, Rachel Reeves's budget was ingeniously designed to have no impact on 'working people'. So, she won't have to worry about the latest 'Red Flag Alert' report from Begbies Traynor, the business rescue and recovery outfit. It's found that nearly 50,000 UK companies are on the brink of keeling over — up 21.4 per cent on 2024's second quarter. True, as the Begbies boss, Ric Traynor, notes, 'tariffs' and 'geopolitical uncertainty' haven't helped. But 'businesses across the UK are being put under immense strain by the increases to employers' NI' and 'the national minimum wage', with consumer sectors such as bars and restaurants, tourism and retailers particularly hard hit. Still, what a relief for Reeves that working people don't do those sorts of jobs. One day is a bit quick to judge what the EC's Ursula von der Leyen hailed as 'the biggest trade deal ever'. But, having locked in 15 per cent tariffs on most US imports from the EU, the euro fell by 1 per cent-plus against the dollar, Germany's Dax dropped by a similar amount, with France's Cac also down, while the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, spoke of the 'considerable damage' to come. As for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, they touched intra-day highs. An inescapable day one verdict: Von der Leyen's been trumped.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Keir Starmer should take Donald Trump's message on board and get tough to make Britain great again
Get tough, PM DONALD Trump has run rings around the EU — and in the process shown the folly of the Remainiacs who tried to defy Brexit. Terrified of the President, the Eurocrats have been utterly humiliated in trade talks. In a deal described by French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou as 'submission', the EU accepted punishing 15 per cent tariffs on goods. It agreed to plough billions of investment into America. Brussels also ripped up its various green pledges in order to import $750billion of US gas. Meanwhile, Britain has been free to do its own deal with Trump, resulting in much lower tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer — who spent years trying to wreck the chances of a Brexit deal — now benefits from the UK being free of the dead hand of the EU Commission. There's a lesson here for the PM that he failed to grasp during negotiations for his recent 'reset' with the EU, which has ended with us once again taking rules from Europe while selling out our fishing fleet. That under pressure the EU WILL crack and give way. That cutting taxes and curbing immigration is the only way to make Britain great again. In other words, get tough, PM. Rot's up, doc OF the many mistakes Labour has made in its first year in power, will handing militant doctors a 22 per cent pay rise last year prove to be among the worst? Awkward moment Trump blasts 'nasty' Sadiq Khan for 'terrible job'… before Starmer interrupts: 'He's a friend of mine!' Didn't it dawn on ministers that all it would achieve would be another absurd pay claim from the Marxist BMA this year? This time it is a huge 29 per cent. Now patients who already receive a terrible service are in for a summer and autumn of chaos as nurses and millions of other NHS workers threaten multiple strikes, too. Proud of you CHLOE Kelly — born and raised on a London council estate and now a global superstar — spoke for a nation after lifting the Euro 2025 trophy when she declared she was proud to be English. Her teammates will also take their tournament mantra of being ' Proper England ' into today's triumphant trophy parade. After decades of being made to feel embarrassed about being English, it feels good for us to be able to celebrate unashamedly. Thank you, Lionesses.
