The Government has insisted that it wants to return as many beds as possible back into the tourism sector, after the CSO revealed that tourism numbers in February sank by 30 per cent on last year.
Speaking today, Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins, Junior Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Equality, answering a question on behalf of the Minister for equality, disability and youth, Norma Foley, said that it was a “progressive step” that 12,000 beds were returned from use for Ukrainian refugees to tourism.
She was responding to Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, who said that the Government was paying too much per night per person for State contracts to turn hotels into asylum centres.
“I refer to the whole situation of the procurement of hotels throughout the country, but especially in Tipperary. Racket Hall in Roscrea and Dundrum House Hotel are landmarks and beacons of our tourism industry. The beautiful Kilcoran Lodge Hotel has been in operation for more than 125 years. There are wonderful staff there and I sympathise with them,” Mr McGrath said.
“There is Hearne Hotel in Clonmel of Charles Bianconi fame, who gave us our first transport system. Throughout Tipperary there are hotels for tourism. I think we had a 25% reduction in tourism figures and visitors in January. We had a 30% reduction in February. If this is not alarming to the Minister of State and to the Government, that is shocking. This has been moved from the Department of integration, which I welcome, to the Department of Justice but I cannot understand for the life of me why the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, has not had sight of it yet nor has the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy. I thank both of them for engaging with me.”
Deputy McGrath said that it was “a shocking indictment of the democratic process and accountability in Dáil Éireann” that the Minister for Education was not present – stressing that junior Minister Emer Higgins only has responsibility for procurement.
Referring to the Kilcoran Hotel, a local family run hotel in Cahir which is being turned into an IPAS centre, McGrath said there was “subterfuge there with shady owners,” and that “the genie is out of the bottle.”
“The owners, who have been flushed out, applied to Tipperary County Council for section 5. We know who they are and what they are, and what they want is a quick buck. They are not interested in the community.”
He said that the venue had been home to many Communions, Confirmations and Christenings for locals, referring also to Dundrum House Hotel in Tipperary. In recent days, there have been calls to halt the contract to turn the 300-year-old luxury hotel into an IPAS centre due to ongoing High Court cases.
The country resort, popular with golfers, has been surrounded by protestors holding signs including “Save Our Hotel” in recent days. The row around the listed hotel began two years ago when Ukrainian refugees arrived, followed by asylum seekers from further afield last year. More arrivals are to follow in the village of Dundrum, which had a population of just 221 people at the last census.
“Dundrum hotel, which was owned by the Crowe family, is a magnificent resource, but it is riddled with court cases at the moment. There was a hearing yesterday involving the receiver. A shady owner, to put it mildly, has that as well. It is being contested and the Wennings from America, who own it, are trying to get him out of the place,” Mr McGrath told the Dail on Wednesday.
‘RECKLESS IN THE EXTREME’
“The communities are not able for this. There are no GP services. There are no transport services. Kilcoran is about 6 miles from Cahir and the parish of Ballylooby. It is a wonderful beacon with great staff and it is just off the motorway. It is a great location to improve our potential for visitor numbers in Tipperary and the fíorfháilte of the Tipperary people for anybody who visits wherever they come from. We are not anti-immigration, but it is reckless in the extreme to take over businesses of long standing, which have given employment and are a valuable resource to the county and to all who visit, without consultation,” the Tipperary TD added.
He further said that despite continued calls, the Government has failed to engage or consult.
“The Minister of State is in procurement. This telling of public representatives after a contract is signed is nothing short of scandalous, blackguarding and disrespectful of elected representatives who are trying to deal with the community. The communities there are good people. In Dundrum, they have been at the gates for 225 days or more. They are standing there, peacefully protesting – they are not anti. The Ukrainians were integrated and working, but the Government is turning it into an IPAS centre.
“This is reckless endangerment of an industry and communities. The Minister of State has it in her own documentation that the demographics cannot be changed by more than 5% in an area with an IPAS centre. Dundrum is being changed by 125% because, according to the last census, there are just 220 people in the village and more than 280 people are being put in. Kilcoran is similar. It is a rural parish and area. It is a great community with great people. Where is the spirit of the Gael and ní neart go cur le chéile in the dividing the Government is doing? It is not fair either to the people who go in there. There is no transport, GP services or anything else.”
Responding, Deputy Higgins noted that Ireland currently provides accommodation to approximately 33,000 people applying for international protection as well as taking in 114,000 people from Ukraine since 2022.
“In addition to the Ukraine response, the increase in applications for international protection places a legal duty on the State to accommodate the additional applicants. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country, and intensive efforts were made, as part of a whole-of-Government response, to ensure people in need were provided with shelter and support,” she told Mr McGrath.
She further said that “every suitable offer” of accommodation has had to be considered and appraised by the Government amid “the acute shortage” of accommodation for those coming to Ireland.
With respect to rural areas, she added: “The Department engages with relevant stakeholders and accommodation service providers as appropriate to ensure that international protection applicants placed in accommodation in areas that are farther from urban centres, towns or villages have access to transportation as a basic requirement. In situations where an accommodation centre is located without public transport links within a 2 km radius but where there is manageable access, IPAS will ensure that a shuttle service to a nearby town or a public transport stop is provided.”
Deputy Higgins further said that there was a Government agreement “to not contract IPAS accommodation in a given town’s only operating hotel was agreed by the Government during this period of intense need on the basis of not removing an important amenity from public use.”
“ I note Deputy McGrath is saying that many of the hotels he listed were amenities up until the point of contract. This was based on not accepting new contracts that would take a town’s last operating hotel out of public use for events, holiday or business stays, and day-to day use by the town for food, socialising or leisure, or the events the Deputy named, such as confirmations, communions and all those important parts of growing up. Where a former hotel or tourist accommodation has not been in public use for some time, or has been contracted by the Department to accommodate people fleeing the war in Ukraine, the approach has been to consider offers from such a property, as it was not providing a hotel facility in that community.”
“Figures from Fáilte Ireland last year showed that 12,000 beds were returned from use by the Department’s Ukraine response to tourism specifically, which were among the 15,000 beds returned to private use by the Ukraine team in the period. I hope this shows that this will allow growth of the tourism sector in the areas like Dundrum and Tipperary, with an acknowledgment of the contribution made by these areas and providers to support the historic humanitarian and State response to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.”
‘SHADY DEALS’
However, Deputy McGrath hit back by arguing that “much of what the Minister of State read out to me in that reply was simply untrue.”
“Dundrum House Hotel – the famous Crowe family for generations has had that hotel – is the only hotel not only in Dundrum village, but in the whole west Tipperary community. That turns the Department policy on its head.” he said.
“We have the wonderful Cahir House Hotel in Cahir operated by Robert Scannell and David Walsh, its two co-owners. They provide a great service. They have often told me they could make a lot more of money out of this. The fact is the Government is paying too much per night per person for this. It is so lucrative that unsavoury individuals are exploiting it and exploiting people who go to that accommodation.”
He also blasted the fact that the Government is prepared to put on a public transport service for IPAS applicants while people cannot get TFI transport in places like Kilcoran and Ballylooby.
“That is discrimination against Irish people of south Tipperary. Why is there such an attack on Tipperary? We played a huge part in the War of Independence, with the first shots fired. Here we are now, with a vein of our hotels right through the middle of the county being taken up and the Department’s subterfuge.”
“Shady deals have been done with people who are unsavoury characters in both hotels I am talking about, and that is putting it mildly.”