‘A disaster from start to finish’

MAYO politicians have blasted the short notice given to the community of Ballinrobe regarding the housing of 50 refugees in a disused hotel, with one branding it as ‘a disaster’.

A round-the-clock protest against the housing of male international protection applicants was dropped yesterday afternoon (Monday) after it emerged that families – not single males – were to be housed at Gannon’s Hotel on Ballinrobe’s Main Street. A number of people maintained a presence at the building on Monday night, with families expected to move into the premises later this week. 

In September, The Mayo News reported that there were ‘discussions’ regarding the use of the property for Ukrainian refugees after renovations took place at the hotel last summer.

Local county councillors, Senators and TDs first learned of the proposal to accommodate 50 men at the hotel there after receiving a briefing document by the Department of Children, Disabilities, Equality, Integration and Youth on Thursday, January 4.

Speaking to The Mayo News following confirmation that families were to be accommodated at the 12-bedroom hotel, local county councillor Damien Ryan (Fianna Fáil) labelled the communication from government regarding the issue as ‘a disaster from start to finish’.

Cllr Ryan also doubled down on his calls for a national and local strategy on refugee accommodation and for a full audit of locally available services.

Tourism impact

At present, 20 percent of all Fáilte Ireland-registered tourist beds in Mayo are being used to accommodate refugees.

This is less than Clare – which has the highest at 33 percent – but above the national average.

“Our tourism model dropped significantly in 2023 and that’s as a result of the amount of beds that’s taken out of the system. It needs to be representative of the population,” said Cllr Ryan.

“There’s nothing at all wrong with saying that. There’s higher percentages in some of these counties. Let's get it up to a national average and then we can look at more.”

When asked how the government could balance the percentage of refugees accommodated in counties without sufficient accommodation, Cllr Ryan claimed that there was ‘quite an amount of accommodation’ available in other counties.

“We have a vacancy problem with commercial and retail in all the urban centres so there’s an opportunity there for vacancy as well,” he said.

‘Huge upset’

Fine Gael TD Michael Ring said that Mayo had already taken ‘more than its fair share of international protection applicants and refugees’ and branded the lack of consultation with Ballinrobe people prior to last week as ‘simply not acceptable’.

“There should be extensive engagement and conversations about a proposal of this nature. Also, services should be put in place before International Protection applicants are brought into an area,” said Deputy Ring.

“With Mayo taking in over 5,000 refugees – this represents 3.84 percent of our population versus a national average of 2.3 percent. Dublin, which has all the services, is at 1.53 percent. Galway and Roscommon have about 50 percent less than Mayo when compared to their populations”.

“I feel that Mayo have done more than their fair share; the figures speak for themselves”.

Fellow Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon said that the lack of notice given prior to refugees being moved to Ballinrobe had caused ‘huge upset’ but said that migrants should not be linked with ‘bad behaviour or criminality’ should not be linked.

“There is no evidence base for this, and such talk or language must be completely ruled out. We must stop the spread of false stories and rumours, and remain balanced, firm, fair, and factual,” he stated.

Deputy Dillon also acknowledged the positive contribution of migrants to healthcare, voluntary organisations and businesses in Mayo before calling for a ‘national conversation on how to tackle the challenges of migration’.

Fianna Fáil Minister of State Dara Calleary also issued a statement on the matter, saying that Mayo’s experience in welcoming refugees had been ‘positive’.

“The key is that communities are involved, that information is shared and that potential resource challenges, eg in health or education, are identified and invested in at an early stage,” stated Minister Calleary.