Local councillors in Drogheda have said talks with Government over plans to house international protection applicants at the D Hotel have been a “waste of our time” after saying “no viable” alternatives have been raised.
In a letter to councillors on yesterday evening, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said suggestions the D Hotel could be used by both international protection applicants (IPAS) and tourists was not workable.
The letter, seen by RTÉ News, said “very serious concerns” about the potential option “from a child safeguarding point of view”.
Mr O’Gorman wrote this was because “by operating a hotel as dual purpose IPAS residents would be exposed to more risk or potential harm due to the constant throughput of commercial customers arriving in the hotel, and it would be substantially more difficult for the mandated person to manage child protection”.
In addition, he wrote that the layout of the D Hotel means “it would be impossible to ensure different categories of residents would not interact on an ongoing basis”.
In a statement this morning responding to the letter, councillors in Drogheda said the situation suggests there are “no viable” alternatives to housing IPAS people at the D Hotel, and said in their view discussions, including a meeting with Mr O’Gorman on 22 February, have been a “waste of our time”.
“This meeting was in our considered opinion a waste of our time as the representatives of Drogheda.
“We make this point based on the fact that no viable options were raised by Government at the meeting and we were told that the issues being discussed would be examined.
“On 9 March we then received a letter from the Minister setting out effectively the end of his interaction with us.
“This is utterly unacceptable and the Minister is washing his hands of the elected representatives who have tried to work with Government when Government failed utterly in working with the elected representatives in signing this contract,” the councillors’ statement read.
The councillors’ statement said in their view the decision to house IPAS people at the D Hotel will “destroy ten years of work on developing a hugely successful tourism industry” in the area, and “have torn up our county and local development plans”.
The statement said what councillors believe was a lack of engagement is “a mistake and a lost opportunity”.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD for Louth, Fergus O’Dowd, has said he believes there was a strong protest vote in the constituency during this weekend’s family and care referendums.
Speaking at the count centre for the constituency in Dundalk, Mr O Dowd said people are still angry about the D Hotel in Drogheda issue and that this was reflected at the ballot boxes.
He said people recently made their views known to one of his staff at a football game and while it did not become “personally hostile”, the situation was “difficult for them”.
