TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said that a decision to stop asylum seeker centres from opening in certain areas is “fair” and achieves “economic balance” in these locations.

The Irish Times today reported that under a new policy,  the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) stopped accepting several types of “properties and locations” last year.

IPAS provides accommodation and services for people applying for International Protection and is part of the Department of Integration.

It was today reported that these properties include hotels that are the “last hotel in town”, as well as properties in north inner-city Dublin.

It also includes properties in several counties, including Donegal, Clare, Kerry, and Mayo, which had previously been used to house Ukrainian refugees.

These properties won’t be used as asylum seekers accommodation centres as a result of “local and political feedback”.

The document viewed by the Irish Times also noted that the resistance within some communities to asylum seeker accommodation centres is caused by “diverse factors, ranging from far-right, anti-immigration criminality, to sincerely held concerns about local public service capacity”.

The Taoiseach was today asked by reporters in Washington if the decision was “proof that protest pays”.

Martin replied that “one must always reflect on situations like that”.

“The last year, we took a view that we didn’t want hotels, particularly the last hotel in a given town, to be used for housing asylum seekers.

“We have to balance the economic situation in a given location,” he added.

Martin said that because the last hotel in some towns had been used for asylum seekers accommodation, that “there was a legitimate case made by communities that ‘this is the last hotel in the town, our tourism industry’, and so on like that”.

He added: “And some areas have had a higher number of asylum seekers than others.

“It’s not fair that those areas would consistently have to take more, and so to create a broader balance, I think that was the general approach.”

Martin was then asked by reporters if the move would encourage other areas to protest, and he replied that he didn’t think it would.

The Taoiseach described the move as “fair” and added that “it’s still very challenging”.

“Very often, when properties become available, they are taken in order to ease some of the pressures.

“There is ongoing reduction in Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTP) for Ukrainians in certain locations, where certain contracts are coming to an end,” said Martin.

“There’s been an easement there in some respects and there was a lot of change and dynamic in respect of that.”

-With additional reporting from Jane Matthews in Washington