Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has ruled out a proposal to partially keep Drogheda’s largest hotel, the D Hotel, open for guests by splitting its use between asylum seeker accommodation and regular paying guests.
Last month it was announced that the hotel would close its doors to accommodate up to 500 international protection applicants in its 111 rooms.
The IP applicants are to start arriving in the coming days with the change of use of the hotel leaving Drogheda without half of its current tourist accommodation capacity.
The proposed ‘mixed use’ idea was ruled out by the minister who cited “child safeguarding” concerns.
In a letter sent to public representatives in Louth, the Department of Integration said that, “From a child safeguarding point of view, there are significant issues associated with either dual use option,”
O’Gorman said that, “By operating a hotel as dual purpose IPAS residents would be exposed to more risk or potential harm due to the constant throughput of commercial customers arriving in the hotel and it would be substantially more difficult for the mandated person to manage child protection.”
He said that issues arising from the layout of the hotel meant that it was not practical to separate access to the six different floors because hotel and stairwells were commonly accessible.
“Please be assured that very serious consideration was given to these proposals,”he said adding that “from my Department’s perspective, given the State’s duty to ensure the safety of IP applicants, especially child IP applicants, we believe that would not be feasible to operate the D Hotel using a “dual use” occupancy model.”
Minister O’Gorman said that the hotel bar and event space can still be used by the public as they “can be separated from other areas of the hotel”.
There has been a significant outpouring of public opposition to the closure of the D Hotel with local business owners voicing concerns about the economic consequences of the move.
Gript’s Dr. Matt Treacy previously wrote a profile on the owners of the D Hotel and how they stand to make €13 million in the first year for accommodating international protection applicants.
He wrote, “The hoteliers behind the decision to turn the D Hotel in Drogheda into accommodation for persons who arrived in Ireland to claim International Protection have already done very well – earning millions of euro so far from other properties providing accommodation for refugees, with millions more to come if the deal goes ahead.”
“They are under scrutiny after controversy erupted this week over a decision to turn the 113-bed ‘D Hotel’ into an accommodation centre for up to 500 asylum seekers from next month.”
“It has been estimated that the Drogheda hotel will “rake in” some €13 million in just one year of providing for those claiming asylum. It’s another example of how lucrative this type of accommodation provision has become, and, as we will see, how it has attracted overseas capital and investment.”
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