*Drumcreehy House.
34 international protection applicants are to be housed in Drumcreehy House in Ballyvaughan.
Owned and operated by Alber Capital Limited, a one year contract has been signed with the operator and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to house international protection applicants, most of whom will be new arrivals to the country.
Nationally, there have been over 190 accommodation locations utilised since January 2022 across 26 counties to house international protection applicants and refugees fleeing war.
Families will be accommodated in Drumcreehy House. At least two members staff will be on-site 24 hours a day. There will be a manager, an assistant manager, two cleaners and licensed security staff on site at all times. The facilities management company has previous experience in the provision of accommodation centres for IPAS.
18 rooms of varying size but all en-suites are in place for the 34 individuals. There will be a self-catering service provided on this site. Residents will be provided with a weekly voucher or debit card for a local shop compliant with the IPAS Points System and refreshments stations will be available 24 hours per day.
When operating as a B&B, Drumcreehy House had twelve ensuite bedrooms.
Each resident will have toiletries replenished weekly and other essentials such as
toilet paper replenished as needed. The facility will have high speed fibre Wi-Fi. Fire alarms, fire-fighting equipment and security cameras are fitted throughout the common walking areas.
All statutory requirements relating to the establishment and management of emergency accommodation are being met by the service provider, including health and safety, fire, building regulations and other requirements. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will manage the arrival of people into this centre.
According to a spokesperson for the Department, “the accommodation of international protection applicants is a demand-led process with new applicants arriving in the country and seeking accommodation every day. The pressure to accommodate over 96,730 new people in such a short period of time has led to significant shortages. The Department has been forced to avail of all offers of accommodation made, right across the country, in order to address the accommodation shortfall”.
An expanded programme of work has been agreed by Government that will allow consideration of commercial properties and sites for development, refurbishment or purchase and the use of alternative modular buildings.
International Protection applicants cannot access the labour market for the first six months that they are in Ireland. After five months, international protection applicants can apply to the Department of Justice for permission to access the labour market and if granted, this permission will only become valid six months after the date of application for international protection.
Speaking on The Electoral Chair, The Clare Echo’s political podcast, Ennistymon native Gerry Reidy who works as Director of Elections with Fianna Fáil stated, “In Ballyvaughan ou have nearly 500 between Ukrainians and international refugees. People are buying properties now with the intention of getting into that contract. The long-term view of it has to be that it can’t continue because in a place like North Clare tourism is an absolute pillar of the economy here, the Government are talking but like a lot of stuff they paint a picture but they don’t deliver. The solution has to be that they identify State owned premises and refurbish them and bring them back into service, otherwise the whole composition of the economy in not just North Clare but in a lot of areas in the country will fall apart, inevitably there is going to be tensions but the Government have picked the low hanging fruit”.
On Drumcreehy House’s contract with IPAS, Gerry said, “it has a huge detrimental affect on a local area. The same focus isn’t coming on refurbishing state properties to make them available and that has to be where I see the solution to it. It has been identified but we’re still talking around it and going back to it, they are trying to bring properties up to a standard that is state of the art and everybody has to have the same thing but if you put yourself in the shoes of some of the refugees coming in particularly from Ukraine where they are going through a terrible situation, I’m not sure they are terribly worried about having state of the art accommodation when they come over here”.
