Protests have taken place – and are continuing – in both Dublin and Kerry as local people oppose proposals to what one EU candidate described as “super size” migrant centres being established in the country.
A protest took place at Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee on Sunday morning, while a 24/7 rolling protest has been announced at Thornton Hall in North Dublin.
The Irish Independent this week claimed that the government is expecting some 30,000 migrants to claim asylum in the country this year, even as the numbers already in state accommodation has almost reached an unprecedented 31,000.
The Irish Independent has learned details of a new Coalition strategy that involves housing hundreds of male migrants in centres in Kerry and Westmeath. Plans to develop the Thornton Hall site in Dublin are included in the plan.
The Government has given the green light to proposals to establish a new International Protection Office (IPO) outside of Dublin and to expand existing migrant camps.
A secret memo reveals the six new camps earmarked to house record levels of asylum-seekers are Columb Barracks in Mullingar, Co Westmeath; Ballymullen in Tralee, Co Kerry; a site in Athlone, Co Westmeath; and Thornton Hall, Ballyogan and Crooksling in Dublin.
Radio Kerry’s report on Saturday seemed to contradict that report, saying that “the Department of Integration says there is currently no proposal to use a former army barracks in Tralee to house people seeking international protection.”
However, Mary Fitzgibbon, who is standing as an Independent candidate in Ireland South, and who attended the protest at the Barracks, told Gript that local people “had no trust and no faith in the government in regard to what might happen in Ballymullen given the absolute chaos in the asylum system.”
“We already have 8,000 people in migrant and asylum accommodation in Kerry: 951 people in IPAS accommodation – far more than other counties and totally disportionate for Kerry – in addition to more than 7,000 Ukrainians,” she said.
“Previously, local people had hoped that [the barracks] would become a HSE facility for the needs of the community, and it now appears it will become an IPAS centre in a county that has already taken far more than its fair share,” she said.
She said that if the proposed new regional centres went ahead as reported they would be “supersized migrant camps” – adding they would be “more like detention centres than anything else”.
“This isn’t fair either on the men being brought here or the local people,” she said.
Ms Fitzgibbon said that she believed Friday’s election would be “Independent’s Day”, while an independent candidate for Castleisland, Michelle Keane, also urged protesters at the barracks to support non-party candidates.
Tralee is one of the six centres in the country earmarked for thousands of migrants - 30,000 a year are coming to this country - this has to stop. On June 7th please vote #independents pic.twitter.com/ovTAL5r71N
— MaryforEurope2024 (@MEurope20249511) June 2, 2024
Meanwhile, locals have called for a 24/7 protest at Thornton Hall in North Dublin – formerly the site of a proposed prison – where a contract to house “adult male” asylum applicants on an emergency basis for one year have been circulated to local politicians in north Co Dublin.
According to the briefing note the exact number of beds to be provided at Thornton Hall “is currently under review and further information on this will be provided closer to the time the site is available”.
It was also reported that ‘the ballpark figure the government is looking to accommodate in the short-term is 1,000 people’.
The Dublin Gazette last week reported that locals were “shocked and furious at the lack of any consultation” over the proposal, and “stated their unified concerns”. The paper said a “furore” had broken out locally regarding the decision to place migrants on the site, and that the community had felt ‘blindsided’.
They said that no waste water treatment facilities, medical facilities or sanitation services existed for such a large group to arrive in the area. The nearby village of
A spokesperson for up local residents who have formed the Thornton Hall and Environment Support Group said the infrastructure does not exist on the site to support a large number of people.
“No one is telling us anything,” she said. “How many people are they planning to put there? There are 162 acres available. If they fill all of that, that’s an awful lot of people,” Helena McGann said.
Activist Jana Lunden, who lives within a short drive from Thornton Hall, said that a 24/7 ‘gatekeeper protest’ was being organised and that people were very upset and concerned at the “particularly large numbers” which they felt would be brought to the area.
“Thornton Hall is a 160 acre site, and locals feel that this site could have been used to address the needs of Irish people – they rightly point to the decision of an Bord Pleanála to refuse a housing development in the are because they said the infrastructure wasn’t there, yet this centre can be imposed without any consultation,” she said.
Ms Lunden said that a leafleting campaign to inform people in the area was underway, and a meeting would take place this evening. She said that the exemption for planning permission, which was being “repeatedly” used to facilitate centres for asylum, urgently needed to be reviewed. “Locals people get refused planning permission all the time, yet we can have unlimited housing . I believe its totally undemocratic. It’s discrimination against Irish people,” she said.
One local women protesting Thornton Hall told a local election candidate from the National Party, Jean Murray, that she was concerned that the site would become one of the biggest asylum centres in Europe.
The nearest village to the site, Coolquay, has a population of just 100 people according to Fingal County Council.
Local Independents for Change Cllr, Dean Mulligan, told the Dublin Gazette that vulnerable migrants would be placed in a community that did not have the services to support them.