Residents angry at plans to house up to 250 asylum-seekers on a site in Kilkenny city are to stage a protest outside the Dáil today. They want the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, to revoke a decision to use emergency powers allowing the complex at Leggettsrath, on the Dublin road, to be built without planning permission.
Work on the site was due to begin last month but was postponed after local residents placed pickets at the entrances. An action group set up to represent them said they were not objecting to asylum-seekers per se, but were angry at the lack of consultation about such a large-scale development in their area.
The pickets were removed after a commitment from the Chief State Solicitor's Office that no work would take place on the site before May 27th.
Mr Mike O'Brien, a spokesman for the action group, said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy; the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, as well as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, were lobbied about the issue during recent visits to Kilkenny.
"In every case we placed pickets on the places they were visiting and we managed to get a few words with each of them.
"They all said they would get in contact with the Minister for Justice about it," he said.
The group was nervous, however, that the issue was being long-fingered until after the election.
It had received cross-party support to date, said Mr O'Brien, but was making it known to Fianna Fáil politicians that in the absence of a satisfactory resolution "we will be expressing our unhappiness in the ballot box".
The Department of Justice says the development would be similar to others in Dublin, Cork and Clare. It would cater, in the main, for families and would incorporate dining, communal, recreational, health and welfare facilities.
Planning permission for the complex was not required because it is classed as emergency accommodation under the terms of Section 181 of the Planning Act, 2000. Court action to try to prevent the development was also being considered, said Mr O'Brien.
