In March, commentator and businessman, Nick Delehanty, sent a Freedom of Information request to the Department of Integration looking for “incident reports” or other information on security incidents submitted by the managers of 3 IPAS centres informing the authorities about “suspected arson attacks, and/or threatening and violent incidents.”
What he received revealed multiple incidents of physical violence, aggression and threats against staff, claims of arson, psychotic episodes which left other residents in ‘fear of their lives’, Garda call outs in relation to fires, and much more – all within a four month period, and from just 3 of the IPAS centres operating in the state out of a total of 320. In addition, records which were refused referred to Garda investigations which are likely to involve even more serious incidents and alleged crimes.
In fact, according to the records released there were a total of 12 incidents of fire in the operating IPAS centres where Gardaí had been called. A claim was made to senior management of one centre by a resident that another resident had told him that he was responsible for fires at the centre and “that he plans to burn the whole building down in the future.” The resident reportedly making the arson threats claims that his motivation is to “get relocated” out of the IPAS centre.
The long list of violent incidents and aggressive behaviours provide an interesting and revealing insight into the operation of asylum centres in Ireland, and those who are being accommodated by them. It’s worth noting that when Carol Nolan TD asked Gardaí to provide accurate information on the locations or the number of times they have been called to centres where international protection applicants are being accommodated, they were unable to do so.
Delehanty was specifically interested in reports from centres at Kilbride Barracks, Crooksling, and Eblana Avenue – which are IPAS centres connected to Igo Emergency Management Services.
Igo, as Gript readers will be aware, are a major player in the asylum bonanza. As detailed at length by Matt Treacy on this platform, it has received an astonishing €57 million for provision of asylum services from 2022 to date. It is an enormously lucrative sector, yet receives curiously little attention from the legacy media.
David Mooney, who is “named on a growing list of applications to different local authorities as the “owner” of Igo Emergency Management Services”, previously operated a lap-dancing club and unsuccessfully sued the Garda Commissioner and the State for what he saw as a failure to provide him with a new identity, €600,000, and relocation to another country after he entered the Witness Security Programme.
The Department of Integration responded to Nick Delehanty partly granting his request and releasing some of the records from the period spanning 01/11/2024 to 07/03/2025.
However, certain incident reports – seven in total – were refused, because “their release would disclose details of investigations conducted by An Garda Síochána (AGS) with regards to incidents at accommodation centres.”
“I believe that the release of this information has the potential to prejudice the outcome of these investigations,” the Deciding Officer at International Protection – Transparency Unit said.
The part-granted records were redacted for personal information, and the centre in which they occurred was also blacked out, though in each case it is one of the three named above – Kilbride Barracks, Crooksling, and Eblana Avenue.
The Kilbride Army camp in Wicklow houses 120 men, who are, according to a 2023 Irish Times report, from countries including Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Crooksling, which was former St Brigid’s nursing home in south Dublin, can house up to 500 migrants. The centre in Eblana avenue houses up to 140 people.
Amongst the incidents listed in the FOI disclosures released to Nick Delehanty, and provided by him to Gript, are records of physical violence, threats against staff, psychotic episodes, fires, a claim of arson, and more, involving residents of the IPAS centres.
- Physical violence by asylum seekers against staff and other residents of the IPAS centres
- Threats to kill – with one resident screaming “I will kill you” in a altercation – and threats of physical violence, against both staff and other residents
- Threats to kill made against staff by a resident who “got very agitated and became aggressive” saying “the rules didn’t apply to him”, threatening “to kill security staff” and then claiming he would “gather a group of his friends outside and assault staff as they left the site”. He was later allowed to return to the site.
- Claims made to senior management by a resident that another resident had told him that he was responsible for fires at the centre and “that he plans to burn the whole building down in the future.” The resident reportedly making the arson threats claims that his motivation is to “get relocated” out of the IPAS centre.
- Record 22 (below) shows that there were 12 incidents where Gardaí were called after a fire in one of three centres.
- A psychotic episode, with smashed plates, hurled bottles, and attempts to throw a microwave across the dining hall. Other residents “fear for their lives”.
- Another psychotic episode, with threats to kill, where “due to the nature of the threats and history of multiple psychotic episodes, additional security measures were put in place to ensure the safety of both staff and other residents. Two security guards were assigned to monitor [the resident] throughout the night, and this security presence continued into the following day. Given the “severity of the threats” this person had made against security staff, Gardaí had also been called.
- Security staff having “racial remarks” directed at them by residents who also verbally abused them.
- A resident spitting in security staff’s face – the same resident had been reported “multiple” times to IPAS
- A chef serving food left “shaken, visibly upset, and quite distraught” after being threatened by a resident “with a weaponised implement”. It was not, the report noted, the first time the resident had been involved in such an instance, and staff he could not continue to be allowed “to put our team and contractors in an unsafe environment”.
- An ambulance called after an aggressive altercation between two residents
- Incidents where an aggressive resident who had “accused the kitchen staff of killing a former resident with their food” and threatened security staff- and then called the Gardaí and claimed he had been threatened by security
In addition, another aggressive altercation required “continuous monitoring” to “ensure that the two individuals would not have any further interaction and that any potential for renewed conflict could be preemptively addressed”.
All of this is revealed by just 13 incidence reports from just 3 IPAS centres – out of a total of 320 nationwide – over a period of 4 months. Three thoughts immediately come to mind.
Firstly, it must be extraordinary difficult at times for the staff who work in IPAS centres to deal with these outbursts of aggression and violence, and for the residents who experience same. As noted above, to add insult to injury, the same staff who were threatened were then complained to Gardaí by the IPAS resident who falsely claimed he had been threatened.
Secondly, these incident reports represent just 1% of the IPAS centres in the country over a limited period of time. A complete picture would reveal the full extent of the aggressive and criminal behaviour of some – and of course it is just a fraction – of the residents. It should also leave us seeking to examine anew exactly who are we accommodating in such large numbers?
Thirdly, the local people who have expressed concerns for their safety and the safety of their communities – even as IPAS centres were battered through at the point of a baton – have a point, don’t they? But does the government, which have access to this information without any FOI requests, actually care?