*The Hyrdo Hotel in Lisdoonvarna is one of the accommodation providers hosting refugees.
AN EXIT STRATEGY is needed with a clear timeline on when Clare hotels and accommodation providers used to house asylum seekers and refugees can return to the tourism market.
Communities such as Ballyvaughan and Lisdoonvarna are becoming increasingly frustrated according to county councillors while the Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Pat Dowling has said some accommodation providers have “chosen to benefit from a crisis situation”.
In a joint motion before this week’s meeting of Clare County Council, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG), Cllr Rita McInerney (FF), Cllr Shane Talty (FF) and Cllr John Crowe (FG) called on Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman (GP) “to instruct his department and IPAS to set a clear plan and timeline that will return hotels and tourism accommodations that have been used in Clare to house refugees through an emergency period to the tourist market”.
They also requested Minister for Tourism, Catherine Martin (GP) to find supports for SMEs in “most affected areas in are supported in the transition phase”.
Co Clare “has gone above and beyond” in offering a warm welcome to people from wartorn countries, Cllr Garrihy said. “It has impacted hugely across multiple factors, it has affected our tourism industry”. He continued, “People understood the emergency measures over three years, we’re looking for a reasonable and decent plan. We’re not looking for something to happen in the morning, we’re looking for a proper coherent plan to allow Clare County Council to react and engage with the host community. The danger of not doing this is the people will lose patience and every human being will be impacted negatively”.
How the Government have tackled the provision for accommodation has been wrong and lacked a multi-departmental approach, Cllr McInerney maintained, “the importance of tourism to our rural communities cannot be overstated”.
Integration is a word used by Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) daily, he told the meeting, “Tourism has to breathe again”.
While supporting the motion, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) questioned where will the people accommodated go. “That is the reality of where we are, our businesses are suffering economically, small to medium enterprises are struggling because of the lack of tourists but we have a number of people that will have nowhere else to go. At the moment we’re in a catch 22”.
Concerns were expressed for the future of Ballyvaughan and Lisdoonvarna by Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) in a workshop two weeks ago. “I spoke of the trauma that the local residents have been through in the last three years, the people of Lisoonvarna feel seriously let down by our Senators and Oireachtas members, they don’t want to say anything in case they are classed as racist, this has gone on three years in Lisdoonvarna and is getting worse”. Slattery claimed the figures of Ukrainians in Clare has dropped from 3,750 in February 2022 to 1,850, “the war is ongoing but they have gone out of the country in my opinion because the money has dried up”. He said an audit should be done on the hotels to see how many bednights were occupied.
Lisdoonvarna based Garrihy said, “We’re looking for an exit strategy on where these people will go, nobody will say get rid of them and put them on the streets. The people of the area deserve to see there is a plan and to be included in the plan”.
Addressing the meeting, Dowling acknowledged, “it can be an emotive issue, it is very much on the impact and it relates to density. We’ve been very active on the whole integration wrap around with the local communities, we are equally and I am equally concerned on the density challenge from day one but secondly what seems to be happening, it is a concern of all local authorities where accommodation was contracted for one purpose has now flipped to a further contract for extending that accommodation for the purpose of the international protection population which had been the Ukrainian population before that”.
Concerns have been raised with the Department on the density aspect, he outlined. “Cllr Garrihy is absolutely right, the Government have no plan to deal with the long-term implications of this matter, various schemes have been mooted through the OPW, Land Development Agency but very little planning of that has come to material fruition and therein lies the difficulty, I think the concerns are very legitimate, Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan have welcomed people from day one, I’d question the wording used by Cllr Slattery, the people were very welcome”.
Dowling continued, “The change of views is down to the private sector accommodation providers, we can’t tell them what to do”. He said, “We have equal concerns nationally, it does have a negative impact on our tourism accommodation but that in again is in the control of the accommodation owners who have chosen to benefit from a crisis situation”.
Responding Cllr Slattery pointed out to the Chief Executive that he said he was in Lisdoonvarna on the day the first refugees arrived, “I didn’t say you weren’t welcome, you haven’t been there since in the last three years, I can give your number to people ringing me on a daily basis if you wish”.
