If the Government implements plans to charge asylum seekers rent, they should also be eligible for child benefit, the Irish Refugee Council  has argued. 

It is understood that the Cabinet sub-committee on migration has approved plans to charge asylum seekers who are in work between €15 and €238 a week. 

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has said it would be “appropriate” to charge people living in IPAS centres. 

On The Hard Shoulder,  Irish Refugee Council CEO Nick Henderson said the group was worried about the Government attitude to asylum seekers. 

 “There’s various tactics and devices and policies that have been introduced under this Government which they believe will tighten up control of our asylum policy,” he said. 

“We have concerns about those policies, we’ve made that clear.” 

A general view of the Mosney Direct Provision centre. Picture by: Niall Carson/PA Wire.

Mr Henderson added that asylum seekers he knows who have secure employment would be “willing to make a contribution”. 

However, he added that not all asylum seekers are so lucky. 

“Where we would have concerns is people in more irregular employment, in and out of employment,” he said. 

“And also people with families.” 

The International Protection Office on Mount Street. Image: Mark Henderson / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Henderson added that if people are working, paying rent and taxes, they should also be entitled to access social welfare. 

He noted that the last Government committed itself to paying child benefit to asylum seekers. 

“Many people will have children in IPAS accommodation,” he said. 

“A third of the population in IPAS are children - around 9,500 children. 

“The quality of accommodation, [there’s] quite a degree of problems within it.  

“And also, in the context of child benefit not being available to children in IPAS accommodation.” 

'That does create resentment'

Also on the programme, independent MEP Michael McNamara described the proposal to charge asylum seekers in work rent as a “reasonable suggestion”. 

“I think people who are claiming asylum should have the same rights as everyone else who is lawfully resident in the country,” he argued. 

“But they shouldn’t have more benefits because that does create resentment… Not that they should pay money that they can’t afford to pay.” 

While Mr McNamara conceded that much of the IPAS accommodation is “substandard”, he added that the rent is unlikely to be set at the market rate. 

“The amounts that is being proposed, at least from the media reports that I’ve seen, are not commensurate to what you’d pay in an open market for accommodation in Ireland,” he said. 

Main image: Child asylum seekers. Picture by: Alamy.com.