TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said he wants to see emergency planning measures that were introduced for international protection accommodation “phased out”, if Ireland builds capacity for future emergencies.

Under the emergency legislation introduced two years ago to cope with a surge in people coming to Ireland to seek asylum, normal planning processes can be bypassed to set up accommodation.

Harris said the multi-billion euro investment contained within today’s revised National Development Plan will help provide the infrastructure to help ensure that Ireland is less reliant on an “emergency response to migration” as seen over the past three years in Ireland.

Central to those measures over that period has been the use of International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) centres, which have become the target of protest and violence by anti-migrant groups and other demonstrations.

Speaking to reporters today, Harris said the government wants to “get us to a point where we don’t have an emergency response to migration, and therefore you wouldn’t need an emergency planning response” as well.

“So I would like to see a position where the exemption to planning processes could be phased out,” the Fine Gael leader added.

He added that he does not believe that migration accommodation “should be treated any differently to accommodation more broadly”, when it comes to planning exemptions.

Harris did not give a timeline for when he would like to see the end of such measures.

He was responding to media questions about a motion brought in Kilkenny County Council looking for these planning exemptions to end.

The State has faced significant legal challenges to certain developments, with one High Court action taken against a largescale facility in Athlone encountering problems after it emerged that the expedited development was unlawful.

The number of applications by people seeking asylum in Ireland has almost halved compared to last year.

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.

The government has come in for criticism from Sinn Féin over its use of properties for Ukrainian refugees, with Sinn Féin spokesperson on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Matt Carthy saying yesterday that payments made to house Ukrainian people has had a “distorting” effect on the rental market.

Touching on this, Harris said today that the government is looking to make decisions around how it utilises State land, “so we don’t have a reliance and over reliance on the private market”.