Copyright irishexaminer
To any normal human being — Irish or otherwise — the thought of setting ablaze a property which had been designated as a safe place for those seeking succour and refuge, is nothing short of an abomination. That someone — anyone — thought it a good idea or a good way of highlighting their anti-immigrant opinions indicates clearly that something is radically askew within our society. To terrorise innocent people in this way is almost beyond comprehension and there is little by way of consolation in the fact that the forces of law will inevitably catch up with the person responsible and mete out suitable punishment. The chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, Nick Henderson, said there have been more than 30 attacks against locations proposed to be accommodation centres. More worryingly, he said while there has been a pattern of attacks ongoing for several years, it now seems to be “crossing a Rubicon” to attacking areas where people are living. Given that we now have more than 300 centres across the country, he called for an extensive security review of International Protection Accommodation Service (Ipas) centres to be carried out. “There should be a general security audit or analysis and trying to identify where the centres are that are most at risk. I think it would also have to be done in an appropriate and sensitive way,” he said. Minister of state for justice, home affairs, and migration Colm Brophy confirmed an urgent security review of all Ipas centres will now take place in the wake of an arson attack in Drogheda. Welcome words at a time when firm action is needed. What the Government does next will be rightly watched and scrutinised. Welcome action in water case For those thousands of people in households across Cork whose lives have been blighted for years by the contamination of drinking water, the legal challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency is both welcome and timely. There have been conflicting opinions about the health of the city’s water supplies for years. in the city have been ongoing to for many years. For some, there is seemingly no end in sight when it comes to getting a clean supply. With the city’s drinking water supply flowing through iron pipes at least a century old, the fragile nature of the system has long been known. Yet, for many, the dream of having clean, usable drinking water is still little more than a fantasy. And part of the problem is that upgrading the system creates difficulties too and legal filings in the case against the EPA accuse the authority of repeated breaches of the regulatory threshold for manganese, for example. The EPA is accused of neglecting its supervisory responsibility for the drinking water supplies in Cork. But whether or not this latest legal challenge over water quality will actually improve the lot of so many households remains to be seen. In this day and age, that should not be the case.
