Mayo hotel to house asylum seeker families

Families seeking International Protection are to be housed in JJ Gannon’s Hotel in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, the Department for Integration has confirmed.

“While initially ear-marked for adult males, there is now an acute shortage of accommodation for families and children and it is now intended to place families into this property over the coming days,” it said in a statement to RTÉ’s News at One.

“A full briefing document with details was issued to local TDs, Cllrs, and Senators on January 4th,” the statement reads. “This was done by the Department’s Community Engagement Team in advance of the accommodation being used.”

Protests have been held outside the hotel, which is on Ballinrobe’s Main Street.

Protesters say they want assurances from the Department of Integration that plans to house 50 asylum seekers there will not proceed.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Fianna Fáil councillor Damien Ryan said he believes the plans will be updated and clarified today.

He said the local authority will be liaising with the Department of Integration and called on the Government to adopt and publish a national strategy on housing asylum seekers.

Mr Ryan said if there was more transparency there would be more public buy-in on the issue.

He said Ballinrobe is a multi-cultural town with many different communities who have been “completely embraced”, but people were taken by surprise by the plans and said there was no consultation on them.

He said the town has already accepted a lot of refugees and has empathy for those in need.

“A lack of communication, lack of consultation and, I think, the resistance is in relation to the male denomination. So there’s a number of things that the department need to clearly verify and find out where this where this whole thing went wrong,” he said.

Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he “totally” acknowledges that people locally have concerns and fears, but that no town can have a veto on who moves into the area.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, he said: “Nobody in a free society, nobody in a democracy has a right to exercise a veto on who moves into their area or community. That doesn’t just apply to international protection.”

Those organising the protest in Ballinrobe have citied concerns about the backgrounds of those who may be accommodated at the former hotel, as well as claiming the plan would put additional pressure on the town’s infrastructure and facilities.

The CEO of the Irish Refugee Council said there is a need for a national communications campaign to explain Ireland’s legal obligation to offer protection to refugees.

Nick Henderson said such a campaign should also include local engagement.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, he said the Department of Integration is doing the bulk of the work in housing people and is under considerable pressure to turn accommodation around at short notice.

Mr Henderson said that people have legitimate concerns and the right to peaceful protests, but warned there can be a fine line “between those concerns and if they can be absorbed by far right rhetoric and misinformation”.