It’s an all-too-familiar scene now in Ireland: a packed community hall full of concerned locals voting against the imposition of an asylum centre in their village or area, while the government keeps scrambling to facilitate the new arrivals adding to the unprecedented numbers of migrants who are living in asylum accommodation but are, in fact, mostly economic migrants.
And so to Carnew in picturesque Co Wicklow, where 350 people thronged a meeting on April 7th “following an application by to install an IPAS centre in The Lodge public house on the town’s Main Street” according to local TD, Fionntáin Ó Suilleabháin.
The Gorey Guardian then reported today that Wicklow County Council has received over 100 objection letters on the planning application to convert the former pub – 127 formal objections according to the Wexford TD – who said an IPAS centre in Carnew would be a “grave mistake”.
While the Wexford County Council planning site records the application as coming from Quest Retirement Solutions, the company in a subsequent statement said that they wish to clarify that they had “no involvement” in the application and that “the property in question is owned by a client of Quest, which is held as part of a self-directed pension.”
“The use of the property is completely within the discretion of the underlying client and Quest has no involvement in the management or future use of the property,” they added.
The owner of the property later clarified that he owned the property through his PRSA pension fund and that Quest had no involvement with The Lodge. He also apologised for any confusion caused.
The concerns expressed by the locals will now also be familiar: a general lack of resources; a feeling that government neglect of the village would be exacerbated by imposing a migrant centre in a quiet rural area; likely a resentment that the authorities who couldn’t be bothered trying to being a hotel or another public amenity to Carnew could spend a fortune providing for people, mostly from safe countries, claiming they are seeking asylum; anger a lack of consultation; and more.
A letter from one local business read: “This centre will put more pressure on already stretched services that are near breaking point in our community. We are very much of the opinion ‘live and let live’ and we both understand the importance of humanitarian support in our country for people less fortunate than ourselves but we feel the Irish Government need to realise that they are making grave mistakes throughout the country placing these centres in small rural villages that are poorly serviced and are struggling to survive as it is”.
However, perhaps it was the size of the crowd, or the fact that local TDs attended, or the sheer number of objections, or the adverse publicity, but at the weekend the application for Carnew was withdrawn, and that underlined that it was the Department of Integration who asked that The Lodge be transferred into use as asylum accommodation, as the building had been used to house Ukrainians.
But then, as was noted in the discussion around The Lodge, it was the Department of Integration who requested that the building be used for IPAS accommodation. It was a reminder that the reckless policy of opening our doors to all and sundry really is a nonsensical strategy completely lacking in any sort of long-term vision that considers the consequences and impacts on the people who are already living, working – and ageing – in this country.
This tactic of seeking to firstly house Ukrainians and then swap to IPAS applicants is really a stratagem of bait and switch which has been used around the country – with Carna and Oughterard being two recent examples. When locals object, the usual plethora of NGOs are on hand to describe them as racists, when the obvious reality is any community would feel less nervous hosting families fleeing war than large groups of single men.
The Department’s request to turn the Lodge into an IPAS centre does point to a gaping hole in the thinking of the authorities in general. Their focus – their eagerness – to find asylum accommodation persistently ignores the enormous demographic changes fast coming down the track.
“In 2023, there were 11 active nursing homes converted into accommodation for Ukrainian refugees before the practice was banned”, the Examiner reported, after Minister Mary Butler said the ban was necessary to “unintentionally incentivising” nursing homes to make the switch.
However, the ban was lifted, and now the number of reports that feature a former or planned nursing home being sought for repurpose as an accommodation centre is staggering. From Rathcabbin in Tipperary, to St Brigid’s Nursing Home in Crooksling in Brittas, to the former Stella Maris facility in Baylough, Athlone, the former Manor House nursing home in Oughterard, and many more.
My colleague, Matt Treacy, has previously pointed out that the “retirement solutions” that are currently needed – spaces in nursing homes for elderly people – are being pushed aside in the rush to join the asylum accommodation gold rush.
One example of a nursing home that closed and quickly re-opened as an accommodation centre for Ukrainian refugees is the Riverbrook nursing home at Castleconnell, County Limerick. It closed in April 2022 with the loss of 31 jobs and the transfer of 22 residents.
It re-opened very soon afterwards to take in Ukrainians who were brought into the building in the early hours of the May Bank holiday Monday.
Since that time, between the second quarter of 2022 and the end of March this year, the company who owns the former nursing home, Rosary Hill House Limited, has drawn down €2,257,520 in payments for the provision of accommodation made through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).
The quick return on investment for investors is obviously enormously attractive, but the government’s actions and their lack of foresight is really quite extraordinary. We have a rapidly-ageing population, a collapsing birth rate that is going to torpedo pensions (try finding a ‘solution’ to that in asylum provision), an increasingly uncertain economic outlook, and increasing numbers of our own young people emigrating and in despair at ever being able to find a home.
Yet government departments are trying to encourage owners of former nursing homes to take in economic migrants instead of building the services our communities desperately need. The whole situation is an impending disaster if this continues for another 5 years.