Kilkenny councillors critical over lack of consultation over asylum seekers

Councillors at a meeting of the Kilkenny City Municipal District have raised concerns over the accommodation of asylum seekers in a city centre hotel.

Mayor of Kilkenny David Fitzgerald said that the housing of the group of 131 people at the Kilkenny Inn Hotel would result in ‘a loss of beds to the tourist industry’.

“We have a thriving tourist industry in Kilkenny and we have a large number of jobs dependent on it. I do not believe that beds of this nature should be taken out of the tourist industry,” he said.

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Cllr Joe Malone told the meeting that the local community was ‘not informed about what was going on’.

“We knew nothing about this,” he said, critical of the lack of consultation prior to the announcement.

Cllr Maria Dollard remarked that there were tensions over ‘a number of issues , especially health and housing’.

“Those issues have been with us long before there was ever a war in Ukraine,” she said adding that she welcomed’ the fact that we are taking in these international protection applicants’.

Cllr Eugene McGuinness said that the Government has ‘made a complete hash of it’ and said that towns and cities need to have their services ‘stress tested’ first.

“People are parachuted in to a system that is already broken,” he said.

Cllr Andrew McGuinness told the meeting it is his firm belief that ‘everyone deserves a home’ and that ‘we should help people in their hour of need.

Cllr Martin Brett said he has ‘a serious problem’ putting ‘131 people in a small hotel in a bundle of rooms’.

“It will only ferment a problem we don’t need,” he said adding that ‘if we don’t have tourist beds it will have a knock on effect on the economy.

Cllr John Coonan said he would welcome any asylum seeker or anyone fleeing from war of whose life is at risk in their home country.

Meanwhile Deputy John Paul Phelan told the Kilkenny People that ‘the system is completely broken’ and said that the application process for people seeking international protection needed to be accelerated.

“Accommodating migration needs to happen against the backdrop of our capacity. Currently the system just cannot cope with the numbers coming. We need the system to react quicker to applications. Moving hundreds of people to designated centres around the country isn’t working.

Insufficient account is taken of additional services being provided.

“This current system doesn’t work for citizens or asylum seekers. The failure to have any sort of national discussion about what we want the migration system in the country to achieve and instead calling anyone who has concerns ‘racist’ has led now to a process that is completely broken.”