A packed meeting in the Breesy centre in Ballyshannon last night heard heated exchanges and strong opposition from local people to reported plans to house 90 men claiming asylum in a guesthouse in the town.
Local TD, Marian Harkin, told the meeting that the asylum system was “broken” and the government “have to fix it”.
“Deportation doesn’t work,” the Independent TD said. “It’s about who can get into the country, it needs to be dealt with at European level and an Irish level, and tonight here is an example.”
Ocean FM reported that there was “uproar” in the town after it was reported that Cavangarden guesthouse in Ballyshannon was set to accommodate 90 male refugees from next week.
“There has been confusion and anger in the town after the sudden announcement of the arrival of the refugees, with a public meeting to be held this evening,” the station reported.
John Molloy, a member of the Community Alliance in the area, told the radio station that 90 men coming into a small town like Ballyshannon had caused concern, that local people had not been consulted and that they wanted to know who the men where.
He said that people wanted to know “why is no-body telling us anything” – and that people were happy to take smaller numbers, but when 90 people were suggested that raised shackles.
On Ocean FM, presenter Niall Delaney said that there had been a huge reaction from listeners – including a “lot of comments” about “the vetting system”.
Local Cllr., Barry Sweeney, said that reports that 90 men might be arriving “came as a surprise” to local politicians – and that he had seen documents saying there was capacity at the guesthouse for 90 male applicants.
He said there was a “huge amount of anger” locally about this – and that there was “zero engagement” with local people.
The family that owns the property in Ballyshannon insist that no legal lease agreement has been signed to allow the provision of rooms to the refugees yet, Donegal Daily reports.
The owners plan to lease the B&B to an accommodation service company, which has a contract with the government. However, the owners have stated that they envisaged that accommodation would be provided on a family basis, and no lease has been signed under the current conditions.
Cllr. Sweeney also told Ocean FM that the family did have long-term tourism plans for the guesthouse – but that they planned to lease the property to a third party which provided accommodation for asylum seekers. However, he said, they were unhappy with what they had now heard about plans for the property.
At the meeting in the Breesy centre last night, issues of vetting, and the fact that all those due to arrive were men, was also raised.
The hate speech laws were also raised at the meeting, with one man saying he believed that the law would prevent people from speaking on important issues. Anger was expressed when Martin Kenny, the local Sinn Féin TD, said that the party did not support the laws as they were at present.
“Sinn Féin supported [it],” he was told by one man at the meeting. “Every TD in Sinn Féin voted for the hate speech laws. Don’t come and bullshit Martin.”
Kenny was also told by an attendee at the meeting that his party had “branded” the protesters in East Wall as “far-right” and ‘fascists’, a charge the Sinn Féin TD denied.
“Every political party in this country is supporting mass migration, every one of you, and it is affecting our housing supply,” the man said. “These people are not being vetted.”
“We’re sending a message to Dáil Éireann, to everyone of you parties in it. We will not accept any migrants in any premises in the surrounding area,” he said to applause from the crowded meeting.
The State is spending an average of €1.88m per day in accommodating asylum claimants in centres across the country to date this year, recent figures showed.
According to the Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, the spend by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) on accommodation services is €617 million for the year to November 24th.
According to IPAS, at December 10th there were almost 26,000 people being accommodated in asylum centres and other venues by the State. Those numbers are separate to the more than 100,000 Ukrainians refugees who have arrived in Ireland.
IPAS says that Georgians, Nigerians and Algerians make up almost 40% of those being accommodated. Neither country is war-torn.