Yesterday ten separate objections to a proposed new asylum accommodation development in Macroom were rejected by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
The commissioners voted 2:1 to allow the demolition of existing structures to allow the construction of a new 20 unit apartment block. Cork County Council had granted permission on June 19.
The application had been lodged by Peppard Investments on November 27, 2024, seeking to build the apartments to provide “temporary accommodation for people seeking international protection. “
Among the objections was one from Macroom Golf Club. Another local appellant was Billy Murphy who claimed that “no assessment has been conducted on the current capacity of local infrastructure and services. “
Speaking to Gript, Mr Murphy said that there had been “zero consultation” with either the community or local elected representatives. He noted that two of the three hotels in Macroom are now IPAS centres.
He also noted that in Ballaghadereen where Peppard have a large IPAS centre in the Abbeyfield Hotel that “tensions seem to be growing due to lack of resources and unfulfilled political promises.”
That has contributed to the fact, he said, that “schools are full, there is a shortage of teachers, and absolutely no chance of getting a GP. There are no rental properties and just five houses currently on sale, some of them uninhabitable.”
In his objection Mr Murphy pointed out: “You can not get access to a GP in Macroom. They are at breaking point and I feel building 20 apartments for temporary accommodation would be putting the rest of the public at risk. As the accommodation is for temporary residents who will be expected to leave the accommodation into the community and be replaced with more temporary residents this will be creating an unsustainable strain on all services in the town”
He said that the strain on services has already been going on “with 5 years or more” and that the effect could be seen on “schools, GP’s, ambulance call outs, Rental accommodation etc.”
He also pointed out that at the time of writing (July) “there are 0 rental properties available in Macroom and only 7 available for sale and 4 of which are actually habitable”
“As this development is for temporary accommodation the residents will be expected to move on and they will be replaced with more temporary residents which will create a constant flow of people into the town which is already at breaking point. This would be total incompetence and diminish any small remaining hope for our young people to be able to move out of their parents home or buy their own home.”
While Sinn Féin Senator Nicole Ryan echoed local concerns and cited the fact that neither Cork County Council or the Department of Integration had responded to her queries as an example of the lack of consultation, another local representative took a different view.
Fine Gael Senator Eileen Lynch told Cork Echo that Minister of State Colm Brophy had assured her that there was “currently no application to IPAS for this property” and that if one was made there was no guarantee that it would be granted.
Lynch said this in July, a month after the application had been granted by Cork County Counci – an application that specifically refers to the apartments being intended for the accommodation of people seeking international protection.
The company behind the proposal, Peppard, is a significant player in the asylum accommodation caper. Since 2020 it has drawn down over €50 million in payments from the Department of Integration. It operates through a number of subsidiaries, the biggest of these being Next Week.
Peppard was founded in 2015 by John Crean and Tony O’Neill. They are also involved in nursing homes as well as residential and commercial property. The taxpayer, through IPAS, has become a major source of profits. In 2023, Peppard reported operating profits of just under €10 million.
The main IPAS centre in Macroom is at the Riverside Park Hotel. That used to be an actual hotel called Lynch’s Lodge but it was changed over to asylum accommodation shortly after Crean and O’Neill bought it in 2019.
Senator Eileen Lynch’s family were the former owners of what was only a well known historical pub which is about a míle from the town centre.
Such loss of local businesses and the impact this has not only on the economy but community structure where hotels and other hospitality venues are given over to asylum accommodation was central to the objections lodged over Peppard Investments latest expansion.
As with the Abbeyfield Hotel in Ballaghadereen referred to by Billy Murphy, this can have a negative impact on the entire life of a town.
Something that is also starkly evident in what used to be the pleasant south county Dublin village of Saggart. Where once the biggest danger facing a sporting visitor were the large rural footballers of St. Mary’s, now it is the site of a huge permanent asylum “transit hub”. The locals say it has become a source of fears in the community – and, since the events of more than a fortnight ago, of reactions of horror after the alleged serious sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl.
No one in Saggart or Macroom or Ballaghadereen or any of the other communities turned into the equivalent of IPAS company towns was ever asked for their consent to all of this.