Hundreds of people currently staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Northwood, North Dublin have received letters stating that they will have to leave the premises.
The residents stayed at the hotel under a contract with the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS), which manages the accommodation of people in the international protection asylum process.
The end of the contract comes as the government is struggling to accommodate a growing number of people arriving here from war-torn Ukraine and those seeking international protection elsewhere.
In letters sent Wednesday, IPAS said the accommodation “will soon no longer to available to IPAS as our contract with the hotel is coming to an end,” reports RTE.
“Unfortunately, this means that we will need to accommodate you in another location. The moves to alternative locations will commence shortly and we will be carrying them out over coming weeks,” the letter continued, reported RTE.
The number of residents at the affected hotel was reported to be between 350 and 400, but neither IPAS nor the hotel responded to requests for comment.
However, the letter, which was seen by RTÉ News, states that “due to the severe pressure on the availability of IPAS accommodation, we will not be in a position to take requests to moves to particular locations. This is because we are simply not able to fulfil these requests, given the overall shortage of accommodation” it states, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Margaret Hughes, principal of Our Lady Immaculate Junior National School in Darndale, said the move would be traumatic for the children and their families.
Four students were affected by the school’s relocation, she said, while other children from the hotel attended other local schools and were similarly affected.
“These are lovely children who’ve brought a lovely richness to the school and I think it’s going to be very traumatic for them. It’s just so sad to see this happening. I think they’ve done so well to get this far and to get settled in, and to be in a safe place to learn and to play, and now to move again; it’s a trauma in their lives yet again,” she said, reports RTE.
It comes as the Cabinet must consider new measures to tackle the housing crisis affecting refugees arriving in Ireland.
It is expected that at the meeting, which will be held remotely, a new call for vacant homes will be agreed upon, which will be made available to the state.
Department for Children and Integration Secretary-General Kevin McCarthy told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that more than 50,000 people have sought state-provided housing in Ireland this year, with the vast majority of them, 43,000, from Ukraine.
The Minister for Children and Integration, Roderic O’Gorman, will present proposals at today’s disembodied cabinet meeting, which should include doubling, to 800 euros a month, the recognition payment to families hosting Ukrainian refugees.
There are also expected to be moves to try to encourage some 4,000 people currently on Direct Provision, who are allowed to stay in Ireland, to relocate and clear places for new arrivals seeking international protection.
The Department of Housing and Local Government is expected to make a new call for vacant homes to be made available to the state.
Up to 100 sites in an army barracks in the east could also be made available to provide shelter for people from Ukraine, while land around at least four other barracks across the country could be used for modular housing.
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