€12 million paid to house refugees in Mayo

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION The figures were disclosed by Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman as part of a parliamentary question by Mayo TD Michael Ring last week.

Oisín McGovern

OVER €12 million has been paid to the owners of three Mayo properties to accommodate international protection applicants.
A total of €12,211,077.62 was paid to three providers in 2021 and 2022, according to figures released by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth affairs.
The figures were disclosed by Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman as part of a parliamentary question by Mayo TD Michael Ring last week.
In 2021, one property with an occupancy of 211 received €3,742,157.94 to accommodate refugees who have applied for international protection.
International protection applicants do not include Ukrainian refugees, who are entitled to live in Ireland as beneficiaries of temporary protection under an EU directive.
In 2022, a Mayo property with an occupancy of 243 received €3,978.075.74 while a second with an occupancy of 61 received €409,920. A third, with an occupancy of 192, received €338,766.
Minister O’Gorman revealed that there are now 26 Mayo properties providing accommodation to Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection.
The total capacity of these properties - which include hotels, hostels, B&Bs and holiday villages - amounts to 1,237.
This comes as new figures revealed that 35.04 per cent of all hotel rooms in the Mayo are being used to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers.
A total of 740 of Mayo’s 2,377 hotel rooms are being used to accommodate refugees.
The county has 6,227 hotel bed spaces in total.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, over 3,000 Ukrainians have fled to Mayo, with most of them living in the Westport municipal area.

‘More balanced approach’
Speaking in DΡil Éireann last week, Mayo TD Alan Dillon called for a ‘more balanced approach’ to accommodating refugees.
“Tourism operators cannot be asked to be the primary accommodation providers to the detriment of the broader industry. Currently, 32 percent of tourism beds have been given over to Government for non-tourism purposes. This will have a knock-on effect on downstream tourism businesses, such as restaurants, attractions and inbound operators,” Deputy Dillon said.
“We need a more balanced approach to housing refugees, including the use of vacant dwellings, unused buildings and state institutions. There is a huge opportunity there. The Minister referred to 200 modular units being built to house 800 Ukrainians. We need ten times more. We need over 2,000 modular units. I ask for a broader approach to this.”
Deputy Dillon also said that he was aware of many hotels that were owned large sums of money from the government for accommodating refugees.
The first-time TD warned that was having ‘a disastrous effect on their cash flow and it cannot be sustained’.
“We are in the opening phase of the tourism season. Any delays to payments or invoices could force hotel owners not to renew their contracts, which would put Government in a precarious position in relation to accommodation of refugees,” the Fine Gael TD said.
Responding to Deputy Dillon, Minister Roderic O’Gorman said that 13 extra staff had been re-deployed from other areas of his department to process p