It has been confirmed this morning that 170 more people who have applied for international protection here are going to be accommodated in Rosslare Harbour, with perhaps up to 400 arriving in total according to an email from the authorities.
Local elected representatives were informed this morning by an email from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), l, Padraig Byrne of the Wexford People and Irish Independent reports.
The email also apparently states that the numbers to be accommodated in the renovated Great Southern Hotel may increase to 400.
As with so much of what is rapidly turning into a full-scale crisis, Green Ministers Roderick O’Gorman and Joe O’Brien’s Department is no longer even attempting to conceal what not so long ago was dismissed out of hand as “disinformation”, where it admits in the email that: “It is likely to be male adults in this first phase given the shortage of accommodation for this cohort.”
The Irish Independent report says that the vast majority of those sent to Rosslare will be “males from right across Europe and Africa.”
The announcement follows a packed meeting that took place in Kilraine community hall to express concerns over what local people already feel is a huge imposition on a small community which will now have around 700 people claiming asylum living amongst them.
Independent local councillor Ger Carthy is surely speaking for many of the local people when he wonders whether Ministers O’Gorman or O’Brien would be happy to have such an imposition on their own “leafy suburb.” He described the impact of all of this on a community already stripped of most of the local main employers as “devastating.”
As previously reported by Gript, 350 people “crammed” into Kilrane/Rosslare Harbour Community Centre earlier this week to oppose plans to turn the local hotel into a second migrant centre in the small rural village.
Local Councillors said that people in the area were “sick of being walked on” and had “done enough”.
Particular upset was expressed at the meeting because plans to turn the old Great Southern Hotel into a nursing home had now been shelved in favour of a IPAS centre housing those who come to Ireland claiming asylum.
International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS), under the auspices of the Department of Integration, provides housing for those who come to Ireland claiming asylum. Currently, some 25,000 people are being supported by IPAS, separate from Ukrainian refugees who come to Ireland under temporary protection measures introduced after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
The Wexford People reports that one local politician described it as the “biggest public meeting I can ever remember being at”.
“[U]pwards of 350 people crammed inside the to hear how local councillors, TDs, and members of the community could counteract plans to turn what was initially intended to be a new nursing home facility into another IPAS centre.
Local reporter Simon Bourke said that Rosslare councillor Ger Carthy explained “how the plans to develop a nursing home at the old hotel had changed after the ownership of the site had changed hands”.
“Domal Construction originally applied for planning permission for a 90-bed nursing home, and 25 independent living units, approximately two years ago. In January of this year, myself and a number of other councillors were informed by the same developer that the hotel was to be turned into a 90-bed nursing home, however, at that stage he didn’t own the building, it was owned by Aidan Gallagher, who had purchased it in January of 2021,” Mr Carthy said.