A hotel in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo that had been earmarked for accommodating male asylum seekers will now house families and children instead, the Department of Integration has said.
Protesters, who started gathering outside the former JJ Gannon’s Hotel in the town centre on Friday night over plans to locate up to 50 male international protection applicants there from Monday, have since decamped claiming victory over the authorities.
“We will welcome families here. Ballinrobe is a welcoming town,” said Michelle Forde, one of the protest leaders, to cheers of approval from others gathered at the hotel.
News of the imminent arrival of the asylum applicants was publicised last week by Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke on his Facebook page after he received a briefing document from the department stating that the male asylum seekers would be housed for up to a year in the town.
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The protests carried on over the weekend despite Cllr Burke saying the original plans to put only male applicants into the centre had been dropped.
The department said at the weekend that it was “continuing to engage with the provider in relation to the premises in Ballinrobe, and is not in a position to comment further”.
In a statement on Monday, it said plans to use JJ Gannon’s Hotel for accommodation would go ahead, but for families and children rather than just male asylum applicants.
The department noted there was an “acute shortage of accommodation for families and children” and reiterated that it had provided a full briefing document which was issued to local TDs, councillors and Senators last week.
“Emergency centres such as this one in Ballinrobe have been opened in all parts of the country. There have been over 190 accommodation locations utilised since January 2022 across 26 counties,” it added. “These options must be considered to prevent homelessness for people arriving seeking international protection.
“The situation in relation to accommodation for international protection applicants remains extremely challenging, and the department does not have enough accommodation to offer to many newly arrived IP applicants at present.”
However, Tánaiste Micheál Martin denied that the Government had made a U-turn in response to protests at the site.
“I wouldn’t describe that as a U-turn at all. It makes sense as we listen and engage, in my view, to refine how we locate and settle people in particular centres,” he said, speaking on a Government trip to Mexico. “It will still be used to facilitate asylum seekers.” Mr Martin added that the country was morally and legally obliged to provide refugees with protection and said that incidents such as the burning of a prospective centre for asylum seekers in Galway were not “justifiable in any shape or form”.
One local representative, who did not want to be named, said the protest in Ballinrobe had gained a bad reputation from outsiders who had come into the town.
“The temperature is very hot at the moment,” he said, adding that the problem was with the short notice given and the department’s approach to the planned move. “After Ballyhaunis, we are one of the most multicultural towns in the west of Ireland and we have had no difficulties. Unfortunately, this was one step too forward.”
Fianna Fáil councillor Damian Ryan criticised the lack of communication and consultation ahead of the move and said greater transparency would secure broader public buy-in for such moves.
He said Ballinrobe was a multicultural town with many different communities having been “completely embraced”, but that people were taken by surprise by the plans.
Businesswoman Carla O’Connor, who was actively involved in the protest, said locals were uncomfortable with a plan to “house 50 men of unknown nationality in the centre of a small town with a creche close by”.
“We will welcome the families when they arrive,” she added.
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