Concern expressed over ability of Tipperary communities to cater for refugees and asylum seekers

GPs in the Clonmel area had reached out to him to say that there hadn’t been any engagement with them regarding the pressure that the arrival of Ukrainian refugees and international protection seekers would place on their practices, Cllr Michael Murphy told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.

Cllr Murphy said there was merit in conducting a proper, detailed impact assessment of the arrival of refugees and asylum seekers into the area.

They needed to know the impact that Ukrainian refugees and international protection seekers would have on GPs, as well as on the education and health services. He said that such an assessment would be a very useful exercise.

He also wondered if there had been any engagement with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to enhance community facilities or provide additional supports in areas where refugees were to be accommodated.

Cllr Murphy said that people are welcoming to those who were genuinely seeking asylum and Ukrainians fleeing war.
If an impact assessment was carried out the conclusions should be passed onto the councillors, who were the conduit for providing that information to people who had genuine concerns.

District Manager Sinead Carr said that if there was a particular issue with GPs in Clonmel the council would make the HSE aware of that.

She stressed that none of the social houses being built by the council would be used to accommodate refugees.

Before an area was considered for the location of refugees, all of the key services such as health, education and social welfare were looked at to see where there may be any difficulties, or “pinch points”. The HSE was very conscious of areas where there were any gaps. Any points of concern in these areas were discussed at a community forum, and in the vast majority of cases the Department listened to those concerns.

She said that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was looking at a number of sites in Tipperary, including Clonmel, as possible sites for the construction of modular homes to accommodate refugees.

However, there was no indication whether these sites, including one in Clonmel, would be progressed with, she said. A total of 62 modular units had been built in Thurles.

Following the passing of the recent legislation, Ms Carr said that the temporary accommodation centre in Littleton had now closed, while the centre at the Dr Pat O’Callaghan Complex in Clonmel would close in the coming weeks and both centres would be returned to the community.

The council had also put a call out to people who were willing to offer private homes that were not in use and that could be offered to Ukrainians. These houses were not and never had been on the rental market, and one or two houses continued to be provided in this way.

If a house was offered, the council checked to see if it was on the HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) system.
They also looked for refurbished properties that could accommodate thirty beds.

Ms Carr said they were extraordinarily lucky to have such a welcoming community in Tipperary. She told Cllr Niall Dennehy that while the country was expected to accommodate refugees totalling three percent of the population, they were nowhere near that figure in the Clonmel Borough District area.

District Mayor Richie Molloy said that while they welcomed people from abroad, they had to make the Government aware that “if they keep taking people in” the resources for doing that must be provided.

Cllr Molloy said he had a lot of sympathy for local people who found it difficult to secure housing because there was very little emergency accommodation and a lot of landlords were leaving the rental market.

It was very difficult for people to have to move to another town to secure accommodation, he said.

Cllr Pat English asked if they had any idea of the numbers of refugees coming to Clonmel, because they needed to be able to cater for those people.

Several schools were already catering for Ukrainians, but if the burden became too much then extra resources would be needed to cater for that.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said that the impact assessment, as requested by Cllr Murphy, had already been carried out in the education sector by the Tipperary Education and Training Board (ETB).