A second asylum centre has been approved for Thurles, Co. Tipperary, just days after a first one was announced this week, according to a local councillor.
On Wednesday this week it was revealed that a Section 5 permission has been granted by Tipperary County Council to Kilbrin Homes Ltd. for exempted development status at a building in Mitchel Street, Thurles.
Independent Cllr. Jim Ryan told Gript that in addition to this, another centre is now being planned in the town which the owner intends to use to accommodate Ukrainians.
“Tipperary County Council have issued a Section 5 exemption notice to Rosendale Property Ltd. in Carrick on Suir for a second [asylum] accommodation centre,” he said.
“The location of this one is in Friar Street in Thurles, which comes a few days after news broke that an IPAS centre is being proposed for Mitchel Street in Thurles.”
Ryan told Gript that the news was “really shocking to everybody”, adding: “A lot of people are really angry over this. “
“It’s come as a huge surprise to people, because nobody knew anything about these two applications,” he said.
“There was no consultation with public representatives, no consultation with local residents, or any other stakeholders, such as schools, or doctors, or Gardaí. So this is a big shock for Thurles – there’s a lot of anger out there.”
He added: “The feedback I’m getting from people is that they’re not going to let this happen…to get a second [asylum] centre within a couple of days is very hard to take for a lot of people in the town.”
The Councillor said that over the two days since the first centre’s announcement, people had been “getting used to the idea”, when suddenly they became aware of a second one.
Notably, a public meeting had originally been planned for Friday night this week for local residents to discuss the matter, though that has now been pushed back to next week.
“We do have a public meeting coming up next Thursday in the Anner Hotel at 7:30 – I’ve organised that meeting,” he said.
“So we’ll see what the feedback from the people of Thurles is at that meeting.”
Asked if there was any indication of the makeup of the asylum seekers that would be moving in – be they families, single males, Ukrainians, or otherwise – he said there wasn’t.
“No, there’s no word on who will be going into either of these proposed [asylum] centres,” he said.
“At the moment, I suppose, they’ve only received their exempted Section 5 notice. They now will have to go off and get their fire certs and other documentation in order befRiore any contract will be entered into with the Department of Integration.
“But I know the one from Mitchel Street, from initial drawings that were sent into the County Council with their application, they did say that they would be looking to construct 15 internal units accommodating up to 81 people.
“The one on Friar Street doesn’t say how many they’re looking to accommodate, so at this stage we don’t know the exact numbers, or who exactly will be going in there. And that’s the most frustrating aspect of all this – the secrecy.”
He said there was an impression that these decisions were being made “behind closed doors” and “behind people’s backs”.
“We’re not being informed until it’s too late,” he said.
“So unfortunately we’re left in the dark here in Thurles – we don’t really know what’s going on. Which has made the matter even worse, as far as I’m concerned.
“This lack of consultation, this secrecy, this ‘behind doors’ attitude of the government, I think needs to change, because it’s stoking up fear in people. It’s putting the fear of God into an awful lot of people in this town, particularly the elderly people. So it’s just not good enough by the Government, to be honest with you.”