Confirmation given that Belmont Hotel offered to accommodate Ukrainian refugees

IT has been confirmed that the disused Belmont Hotel in Knock has been offered as accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. 

The Department of Integration, which has yet to respond to queries on the matter from The Mayo News, confirmed to Midwest Radio that the property has been offered as accommodation for refugees from Ukraine. 

“The property is currently being assessed as part of the Emergency Refurbishment (Ukraine) Project overseen by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage,” said a spokesperson from the department. 

“The property has been offered to provide accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.”

Over 200 people gathered outside the 65-bedroom hotel at a public demonstration on Tuesday evening. 

The gathering was addressed by a number of election candidates, who expressed concern about the lack of consultation with the local community and the lack of services in the area. 

The controversy erupted after a leaked letter emerged from Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council's Director of Services for Housing, to Mr Bobby Carter, discussing the potential use of the hotel as refugee accommodation. 

Mr Gilligan later confirmed to The Mayo News that this correspondence - which took place last July - related to accommodating Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection from Ukraine. 

Works have recently taken place inside and outside the hotel, which closed in 2010 and is in a dilapidated state. 

_{A crowd of over 200 gathered outside the Belmont Hotel in Knock (Pic: John Corless)}

Under new government rules, Ukrainian refugees may reside in state-provided accommodation for no more than 90 days before having to source their own accommodation. Mayo, which has seen over 4,000 Ukrainian refugees arrive since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, recently recorded a drop in the number of Ukrainians in state-provided accommodation. 

Paul Lawless, Aontú local election candidate for the Claremorris Local Electoral area, hit out at local elected representatives’ failure to show up at Tuesday’s demonstration outside the Belmont Hotel. 

Mr Lawless said that county councillors were informed of communication between Mayo County Council and the hotel owner regarding using the property for Ukrainian refugees. 

A letter from Tom Gilligan sent to county councillors on July 17, 2023, referred to ‘attached correspondence in relation to the Belmont Hotel’.

Mr Gilligan sent the letter after councillors advised at a council meeting that they would ‘like to be informed of upcoming refugee projects that may be coming on stream’. 

Mr Gilligan told The Mayo News that the refurbishment of the Belmont Hotel would be completed in two phases. 

According to the letter between Mr Gilligan and Mr Carter, the hotel has been proposed to accommodate Ukrainian refugees for ‘a minimum of two years’ before reverting back to tourist accommodation.

Mr Lawless called for ‘a stricter migration system, a system that actually enforces the existing immigration laws’.

“We are two years into this crisis, two years of Government politicians calling for more ‘public consultation’. The truth is the Government is purposefully keeping local communities in the dark,” he stated. 

Mr Lawless also hit out at the difference in planning laws for housing and accommodation centres for refugees and International Protection Applicants, which, he said, “allows wealthy property owners who are making vast sums of money to bypass the planning system. Meanwhile, ordinary hard working people must go through a lengthy, expensive planning process.”