After claiming that “no viable” options had been presented, local council members in Drogheda declared that discussions with the government over proposals to accommodate applicants for international protection in the D Hotel had been a “waste of our time,” reports RTE.
The Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, stated in a letter to council members last evening that it was not feasible for tourists and international protection applicants (IPAS) to use the D Hotel together.
“Very serious concerns” were raised about the possible choice “from a child safeguarding point of view” in the letter, which RTÉ News was able to examine, reports RTE.
Mr O’Gorman wrote this was because “by operating a hotel as dual purpose IPAS residents would be exposed to more risk or potential harm due to the constant throughput of commercial customers arriving in the hotel, and it would be substantially more difficult for the mandated person to manage child protection”, reports RTE.
Furthermore, he stated that “it would be impossible to ensure different categories of residents would not interact on an ongoing basis” due to the D Hotel’s structure.
Council members in Drogheda responded to the letter this morning with a statement stating that they felt discussions, including a meeting with Mr. O’Gorman on February 22, had been a “waste of our time” and that the situation suggests there are “no viable” alternatives to housing IPAS people at the D Hotel.
“This meeting was in our considered opinion a waste of our time as the representatives of Drogheda. We make this point based on the fact that no viable options were raised by Government at the meeting and we were told that the issues being discussed would be examined. On 9 March we then received a letter from the minister setting out effectively the end of his interaction with us,” reports RTE.
“This is utterly unacceptable and the minister is washing his hands of the elected representatives who have tried to work with Government when Government failed utterly in working with the elected representatives in signing this contract,” the councillors’ statement read, reports RTE.
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