Alert – Outrage in Dublin as it’s revealed hated migrant camps are being funded with taxpayer cash – which is spent on tents lining the streets before officials come along and destroy them!

Tents being provided to migrants in Ireland are being paid for with taxpayers’ money, can reveal.

The Irish government has confirmed that one of its departments is funding four homeless charities to supply the tents which have lined the streets of Dublin for several months.

We can reveal that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is using taxpayer money to allow Mendicity, Capuchin Day Centre, Tiglin and Crosscare to give out tents to migrants who have arrived in Dublin on small boats to seek asylum.

The revelation has sparked anger among Irish locals who said it was a ‘joke’ that their hard-earned cash was being used on tents, which are then being cleared and destroyed.

Glen Thomas, a 26-year-old maintenance worker from near Smithfield, Dublin, told : ‘It frustrates me, I have to say. I’ve just come out of a day’s work, a hard graft, trying to earning a wedge. 

Asylum seekers’ tents on the Grand Canal bank at Warrington Place, Dublin

Tents being provided to migrants in Ireland are being paid for with taxpayers’ money, can reveal

A view of several tents which are about to be removed at Dublin’s Grand Canal

Former St.Brigid’s Home Crooksling which is currently being used to house asylum seekers in Dublin

‘I pay a lot of tax every month and that’s where it’s going, it’s totally unfair – and I’m not the only one. I work hard every day, Monday to Friday. It’s a joke.’

He added: ‘I disagree with it totally. I’m against it all to be honest. There’s plenty of Irish people that need it, there’s so many Irish homeless people, they don’t even get tents, never mind homes. 

‘It’s a no-brainer for me, they should be looking after their own people before. There’s so many incidents that have happened when they’ve come over.’

When asked if he was surprised that this is where taxpayer money is going, he said: ‘Not really, not with the way the government it is. It’s corrupt.’

It comes after the Irish government said on Thursday: ‘Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is funding homeless service providers (Mendicity, Capuchin Day Centre, Tiglin, Crosscare) for provision of necessary basics which may include tents.’

Salesman Garreth Lloyd, from Donnycarney, Dublin, told : ‘When they are coming in illegally, I don’t know if our tax money should be going there. You don’t know who you are letting in. It’s different when it’s illegal migrants coming in.

‘I think I’d rather the money I pay my tax with to be getting our own homeless people off the streets. If you were to give me the option rather than to illegal immigrants that we don’t know what kind of these people are. I don’t think that’s where I want my taxpayer money going.’

The 30-year-old, who had just started a new job as an electric salesman, added: ‘I’m all for immigrants coming over. The only thing is a lot of things have happened this year with immigrants but they are not vetted. I have a problem with that. I have no problem with migrants coming over except when they are not vetted.’

When asked where he would prefer his money to be going, he said: ‘I think at the moment it’s mainly Irish homeless people in Dublin. The homeless crisis is absolutely crazy.’

Salesman Garreth Lloyd (pictured), from Donnycarney, Dublin, told : ‘When they are coming in illegally, I don’t know if our tax money should be going there. You don’t know who you are letting in. It’s different when it’s illegal migrants coming in’

Catrina O’Doherty (pictured), 40, said: ‘If we are paying for tents and then they are being destroyed a week after, it’s a waste of money….It’s frustrating, it’s a waste of money definitely ‘

Mother-of-one Erica Ryan, from Smithfield, Dublin, said: ‘They shouldn’t be in the country. It’s not fair. The Government don’t look after their own, so why look after the migrants? They are not even vetted, some of these people.

‘I would prefer the money to go on Irish people, to help them to be housed. They are getting everything when they coming into the country and the Irish are left to live on the streets, that’s not fair.’

The 32-year-old added: ‘It doesn’t surprise me, with this country anymore. It’s bad what they are doing and it’s going to cause more and more trouble. It’s their own fault.’

Catrina O’Doherty, 40, said: ‘If we are paying for tents and then they are being destroyed a week after, it’s a waste of money….It’s frustrating, it’s a waste of money definitely. ‘

She added: ‘They need to house people. I think they should have an organised reception centre and I don’t know they are processing them that well and people are being left to their own devices. 

‘We are going to have immigration all over the world due to wars. We are all immigrants the way I see it, people have moved always across the world. We are an island, we didn’t just sprout up here.’

Her friend, who did not want to be named, added: ‘That doesn’t make any sense to me. If it is, it does seem kind of strange that you are paying tents and then you are not controlling how they are being distributed.’

Michael Noone, 45, said: ‘There’s an awful lot of homeless people in Ireland which they should look after the Irish people. 

‘I work at Dublin City Council, I’m back living with my mum and I’m 45 years of age. I can’t get priority to get a house over here and they prioritise refugees.

‘I think they should get their priorities with the Irish people first.’

The Dublin City Council worker, from Blackhall, added: ‘I don’t mind the Irish taxpayer paying money if they are official. At the end of the day, we have to look after them, you can’t leave them on the street.

‘I think the taxpayer should pay for a certain limit, up to three months. But after a certain limit, they should be quicker to get them back where they are from. The process should be quicker, that’s my opinion.’

Michelle, 52, from Colndalkin, said she was ‘concerned’ to hear taxpayer money going on those who had crossed into Ireland illegally.

She said: ‘It concerns me an awful lot. This world is so dangerous. I don’t believe taxpayers should be paying for illegal migrants, they should be brought back to their country.

‘It’s alright helping the women and children but men, no. I would rather the money went on our homeless people, a lot of them need help and are struggling with addiction. It’s the government’s fault. They are coming to our country trying to help and they are doing wrong things.’

In contrast, Ken, from the Smithfield area, said he did not mind his taxpayer money going on the tents.

He said: ‘It’s very difficult because they’ve got 200-odd supposed to be coming in every week. They have to be housed, well we don’t have to house them, we don’t have housing for our own. But something has to be done.

‘I think every homeless person is the same, they are all human beings so they have to be looked after in some way. Our problem is money at a state. Small country, small population. Bigger countries can do a bit better. 

Michelle (pictured), 52, from Colndalkin, said she was ‘concerned’ to hear taxpayer money going on those who had crossed into Ireland illegally

Michael Noone (pictured), 45, said: ‘There’s an awful lot of homeless people in Ireland which they should look after the Irish people’

‘The opposition never say what they think can be done or what they would do, it’s all vote-catching at the time, with the election coming up.’

When asked if he thought most Irish people would agree with him, he said: ‘I would hope so. There’s nothing else we can do. 

‘People are saying we should have seen it coming, we didn’t see it coming to the extent it is coming. We were slow to react, Government’s everywhere are slow to react.’

Asylum seekers had spent months surrounding Dublin’s International Protection Office on Mount Street in the city centre until it was dismantled on May 1.

The Irish government had blamed Britain’s Rwanda policy for a recent influx of migrants leaving Northern Ireland for Dublin.

Migrants living in Mount Street before it was destroyed and cleaned told how they had left the UK to avoid being sent to Rwanda – and even thanked Britain for now allowing asylum seekers to be sent back to Belfast.

Asylum seeker Otumba, who travelled from Nigeria to the UK before settling in Dublin via Belfast, said last week: ‘I came into the UK. I wanted to seek asylum. Then 5 weeks ago we heard that the Rwanda Bill is going to be passed, and we don’t want to go back to Africa. 

‘Africa is not an option. It is not safe. Africa is like a volcano that can erupt at any time. We decided to go to Ireland on information that Ireland is safer and more accommodating.

‘We had an idea about what was going to happen, so you don’t take chances.’

Otumba, in his 40s, arrived in the UK four months ago after flying from his home in Lagos,Nigeria, on a six-month tourist visa. He intended to claim asylum when his visa expired because he faced ‘persecution’ back home.

He continued: ‘Now our Irish prime minister wants to put emergency legislation to send people back. It’s not going to work because the UK will say they are not willing to accept asylum seekers from Ireland which I think is good news to us.

‘We don’t want to go Rwanda. It’s a very good thing that we can’t go back to [Northern Ireland]. It concerns me that [Ireland wants to send people back].’

Just days after the tents were removed on Mount Street, a replacement encampment sprung up along Dublin’s Grand Canal but around 100 tents were removed by diggers on Thursday and the area was fenced off.

Migrants have now been moved to tents at Crooksling, a former nursing home an hour out of Dublin in the mountains, and Citywest – a nearby hotel where many Ukrainians are also being housed.

The removal of the encampments comes amid a diplomatic row between the UK and Ireland over migrants coming to Dublin from Northern Ireland.

The Irish Government said on Thursday that 163 asylum seekers were moved to Crooksling, where 10 to 12-man ‘tents and weather-proof tents’ have been supplied for migrants. There are toilets and showers, health services, and indoor areas for food at Crooksling.

When visited the site, there was a 10ft metal gate and security preventing access. Three police cars also entered the premises in quick succession but left shortly after.

The Grand Canal encampment in Dublin now has barriers up to prevent migrants returning. Waterways Ireland, which is responsible for the Grand Canal property, spent €13,500 on cleaning up the latest tent city.

Irish prime minister Simon Harris told parliament on Wednesday that the similar operation last week had a ‘very positive impact’ and averted a ‘public health near-emergency’.

Former St.Brigid’s Home Crooksling which is currently being used to house asylum seekers in Dublin

He said: ‘I continue to believe that it was the right action to take. I became Taoiseach four weeks ago, I took charge of this situation.

‘There had been, in my view, a tacit acceptance by many State agencies that the situation on Mount Street could just continue and was just the new norm. That was not right.’

He added: ‘We will deal with the Grand Canal. Action will be taken.’

Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who recently alleged that more than 80 per cent of migrants in Ireland are coming in via Northern Ireland to avoid deportation to Rwanda, said that the government must ensure a tent city does not return.

‘Once people are moved, measures will be put in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.’

‘When they are provided with that accommodation, it’s also really important that we don’t see scenes like we’re seeing now at Mount Street again, that it cannot re-emerge, that we have hundreds of tents – not just outside the international protection office – but outside people’s homes, outside people’s businesses.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared last month that he is ‘not interested’ in taking back migrants from Ireland given that the EU refuses to take back Channel migrants who arrived from France.

He was speaking after Ireland warned they could draft emergency laws to force refugees back to the UK.

Mr Harris vowed to pass new laws to facilitate returns of migrants after the country’s courts declared the UK cannot be classed as ‘safe’ due to its pact with Rwanda.

But the UK Government said it would ignore any law passed by Ireland, with a No 10 spokesperson declaring: ‘Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who it does or does not accept into the country.

‘We are not going to start accepting returns from the EU, just as France doesn’t accept returns from the UK.’

has contacted DCEDIY and the four homeless charities for comment.