Residents of Rosslare Harbour are to meet Wexford TDs this evening to demand that the Department of Justice drop its plan to turn a local hotel into a reception centre for asylum-seekers.
More than 500 people attended a public meeting in the village last night, the second in three days, to voice their opposition to the Department's plans for the Devereux Hotel, which the State has purchased for nearly £2 million.
There was applause when one speaker said refugees would "spread AIDS and other diseases" if allowed to move into the area. There was also support for a suggestion that asylum-seekers should be physically prevented from moving into the hotel. "If one goes in there, we'll never get them out," one man said to further applause.
The meeting had been reconvened from Wednesday to give residents an opportunity to seek assurances from local TDs that they would oppose the Department's initiative.
However, in talks yesterday it was agreed that the TDs would meet a committee representing the residents this evening in Wexford town.
All five local deputies - the Minister of State, Mr Hugh Byrne, Mr John Browne, Mr Brendan Howlin, Mr Ivan Yates and Mr Michael D'Arcy - are expected to attend.
Speakers at last night's meeting supported the plan to meet TDs, but some said it was "a waste of time".
One man suggested that local people should not participate in renovating the hotel and local shops should not supply food to the centre.
Ms Carol O'Brien, a local development committee member, who chaired the meeting, said people needed to be careful that comments they made could not be used to portray Rosslare Harbour in a negative light.
"Some national media were portraying local people as racist, following Wednesday's meeting, even though this was not the case," she said.
One young man said local people were not racist and would have no problem accommodating six or seven refugee families which would be in proportion to the size of the village.
Ms O'Brien said the committee expected the local TDs to support their case in the Dail. If that strategy did not work, they would have to reconsider their options, she said.
However, when she asked if residents would allow a timeframe of a week to 10 days for this to happen, there were shouts of "No".
