Independent Baltinglass councillor Gerry O’Neill has described apparent attempts to paint Wicklow County Council’s opposition to building modular homes for Ukrainians as “far right” as “totally unfair.”
On Monday night, councillors voted down proposals to construct modular homes at sites in the town of Baltinglass and the village Dunlavin for Ukrainians living in Ireland as part of the government’s humanitarian response.
Elected members of Wicklow County Council had to vote on Point 8 before them, which if passed, would have resulted in a three-year-long lease agreement with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth over 1.82 hectares of land at Lathlaleere in Baltinglass and 1.37 hectares at Dunlavin lower.
The councillors, however, voted down the plans in a large majority, with 19 local councillors voting against the modular homes proposals, nine voting in favour, and four not present at the vote.
The Office of Public Works had been considering the separate sites in the areas, for the provision of 38 modular homes, as part of a 2022 European Union directive. The rollout of the modular homes programme had been classified as a matter of “extreme urgency” under the EU directive governing procurement regulations.
Speaking on East Coast FM on Tuesday, Paul O’Brien, Labour Party Councillor for Wicklow East, said the vote did not reflect well on the council.
“It wasn’t a great day for Wicklow County Council. […] Of course, I did warn about the far-right, and I was laughed at yesterday for bringing it up […]
“And actually, some of the rhetoric yesterday at the meeting […] and it’s a great slogan, ‘Irish First’ but by God, it’s not something I ever thought I’d hear at Wicklow County Council, so I hope it hasn’t tarnished us,” Cllr O’Brien told the programme.
Others contacted the radio programme to describe the vote as “shameful” and “disgusting.”
However, speaking on East Coast FM’s Morning Show on Thursday morning, Independent Cllr O’Neill explained why he voted against the proposals.
“The land in Baltinglass – we worked hard to rezone that for recreation and open space. In that particular area of Baltinglass, there are over 200 social units in there as it is, with no facilities, none whatsoever,” he said, as he rejected criticism over the vote.
The former Sinn Fein councillor, who was a member of the party for 47 years, contested views put to him that the vote was “shameful,” stating: “Paul O’Brien is very disingenuous.”
Cllr O’Neill told Gript on Thursday that he did not support the motion for a range of reasons, outlining plans for the area of land set out in a county development plan a number of years ago.
“The particular area where they wanted to build these modular homes, it’s on the verge of an estate and it’s the only green area on a social housing estate. It provides open space and recreation for residents. In that area there are over 200 houses with no infrastructure, and from this point of view, I couldn’t support these plans,” he said.
He pointed to the temporary nature of the arrangement, along with the high cost of providing the modular homes. In January, it was revealed that the building of 30 modular homes in Drumnavanagh on the Farnham Road in Cavan to house Ukrainian refugees was to cost the state €8.4 million, drawing significant criticism.
“I also couldn’t support it when we were told by the Minister that the plan was to build the houses and then take them down in three years time. That it was only a three year deal. It’s very hard to believe or understand why the State would spend so much money on building 38 houses and then in three years, demolish them,” he added.
He said that councillors were not given detail regarding the design of the homes.
“We were not given any design, so I am not sure whether they were to be made up of steel or aluminium or concrete, but I know it would cost a lot of money to put in the services like water, sewage and electricity.
“I couldn’t believe that minister O’Gorman would have the neck to try and convince councillors into voting for this by saying that the houses would be removed after three years.
“I said it in the chamber on Monday night that I couldn’t stand by in three years time and see people being taken from their homes and their homes being levelled, in the case of this accommodation. The government isn’t really serious about it in one way; it’s really an EU directive from June 2022 where the EU demanded that public land would be used for the building of this emergency accommodation,” he said.
He expanded on his criticism of Cllr O’Brien, adding “I took a swipe at Paul O’Brien because I don’t believe he is genuine. He announced at the end of his speech on Monday night that the following morning, the fascist right-wing people would be onto the media and on the radio, but the only person i heard the following morning was Paul O’Brien himself.”
He described O’Brien’s comments as “totally unfair,” continuing:
“I’m a councillor here and for all my life I’ve been involved in helping the underdog. I’m involved in the Church here, and in helping Ukrainians here learn the language so that they can properly integrate.”
As the owner of a Boxing Club in Blessington, Mr O’Neill said he has had many people in direct provision, along with Ukrainians, train at his club.
“However, I couldn’t back this,” he said. “One of the reasons is that I don’t believe in segregation. This idea of building units because the EU tells us to do so is wrong. The idea of putting people of a certain nationality or colour in this particular area, and the rest somewhere else, I believe that is wrong.”
“There are a lot of people scared to speak out as they feel they will be judged one way or another and I think that’s wrong. I think we should all be able to have a say. We had censorship in this country for a long time. We’ve been through all of that. I am disappointed in my former party, Sinn Fein, of which I was a member for 47 years,” Cllr O’Neill added.
During Monday night’s meeting, a multitude of concerns were raised by elected councillors around the motion, with Cllr O’Neill and Cllr O’Brien clashing heads over the plans during the tense meeting. Cllr O’Brien told the meeting Ireland was witnessing the rise of the far right, describing the present situation as “horrible.”
“Unfortunately, Cathaoirleach, we live in what can only be described as a horrible time, and we have the rise of the far right which Councillor Mullens alluded to a short time ago,” he told the meeting.
He said it was a matter of conscience, adding:
“I am going to vote with my conscience and I will be voting and supporting these modular homes not because I want to fall out with my colleagues from the west.
“I have nothing but respect for them, but we are where we are today, and delaying these modular homes is not going to help the people that are going to go into them,” Cllr O’Brien said.
He went on to say: “If the councillors vote against this, I am not saying they will have blood on their hands or anything like that. They are principled people that have been let down here.”
Cllr Derek Mitchell was among those to vote against the plans. Prior to the vote, he described the task of the council as a “difficult decision.”
“I suppose my concern is, we are essentially being told or instructed by central government should put these modular homes in these two places for a significant number of people in the context of the size of communities there,” he said.
“And we were told by central government that we weren’t to have more houses in Baltinglass and certainly in Dunlavin. And it seems to me that if we weren’t supposed to have private housing in these places, it is just mad to be told that we are now to have these modular homes for people who won’t be as easy to deal with.
“And if the reasons were valid — as far as I remember, the Office of the Planning Regulator sent specific instructions to do with these towns and possibly these sites that they were not to be zoned for housing because of over-targets.
“I just have a concern that on the one hand we are being told we shouldn’t have more people in these settlements, and on the other hand we are now being told that we should have some time after the five-year development plan process is over. So I think that is wrong,” he added.
Councillor Tom Fortune said it was “grossly unfair” to put councillors in the position of voting on the plans.
“We really shouldn’t be in this situation at this moment in time,” he said. “I think the Executive of the Council are a disgrace to put the public reps in this position. The big problem is, there’s several issues going on here.
“One is the lack of communication is disgraceful and it has to be deemed now that you don’t care whether you communicate with people, with the councillors or not. It has gone beyond a crazy joke at this stage. It is just crazy what has gone on here today. And you will have people obviously coming from different groupings and different parties under pressure from what is going on nationally and everything else. The whole thing is just grossly, grossly unfair.”
Those voting against the proposals pointed to a lack of communication, lack of transparency and a lack of discussion with the municipal district councils in the Baltinglass area.
Cllr Mary Kavanagh, meanwhile, said that it was unlikely the homes would only be there for three years, as she also opposed the plans, questioning whether it was right to “build houses for a particular nationality to the exclusion of all others.”
“Did the Council even look to an alternative before they decided to tie up this for what they say is going to be three years but which I think we all accept in reality won’t be three years, it will probably just roll over to another three years, and then ad infinitum,” she told the meeting.
“Would it not be better for integrating within communities if we had smaller little developments so it wouldn’t look like a hived-off area for a certain section of the community, which I don’t imagine is helpful or useful for anybody,” she added.
She asked: “Is it not discriminatory to build houses for a particular nationality to the exclusion of all others, including the Irish? That just doesn’t sit well with me. Why exclude everybody else and have a specific nationality looked after in this housing crisis?”