Department has fallen down “disgracefully” in community engagement

Cllr Mary Bohan proposed that Leitrim County Council contact the Taoiseach, Simon Harris TD, the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, and Minister Roderic O'Gorman TD to express “our total dissatisfaction with the lack of communication in relation to the placing of international protection persons to locations in County Leitrim.”
She said that if “you raise this topic at all, you are accused of being racist even though the vast majority of people in this country have shown they are not and welcomed people that needed shelter and housing into the country and Leitrim has been at the forefront of that.”
She continued that Leitrim has “welcomed a considerable amount of people into this county but where the department has fallen down, in my mind disgracefully, is in relation to community engagement.”
Last year, a Community Engagement Team was established within DCEDIY to work with colleagues across Government, local government and the community and voluntary sectors, assisting with certain openings of accommodation centres, where possible.
Cllr Bohan said that “this hasn't been done; it hasn't been done in Dromahair and it's absolutely disgraceful the way they've treated the people there.”
She said the “Community Engagement Team came down in December and said there were 155 people coming to the hotel the following week and more or less told us we could take it or leave it.”
She stated that she took exception to the way the “planning department in the council were treated” and said it was “ridiculed.”
Last month, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys found the proposed use of the Abbey Manor Hotel was not unlawful, as alleged by the council, and “can go ahead.”
He said owner Dromaprop Limited was entitled to avail of a planning exemption to change the use of the hotel, which shut during the financial crash in 2009, to accommodate “protected persons” under 12-month contract with the Department of Integration.
He refused the council’s request for an order prohibiting the temporary housing of asylum seekers at the premises.
Cllr Bohan said there is “no use having a community engagement team just in name; it's a complete farce and I think people are being railroaded into doing things that they haven't had any say in.”
She added that ahead of the proposed arrival of 155 asylum seekers last year she said no consultation had been held Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board (MSLETB), who provide English classes.
“There was no consultation with the local doctor's surgery, the HSE or primary or secondary schools,” she said.
She said the building was not fit to house 155 people, in her view, adding that “one of those rooms had eight beds with a room off it with three beds with one standard toilet and shower to eleven people. Is that humane for people coming from war-torn countries?”
She added that she felt the “department has lost control of where a lot of these people are coming from and there are a lot of people not coming from war-torn areas.”
Cllr Felim Gurn supported the motion and noted that planning was originally approved for Short Term Tourist Letting (STTL), “which meant a hotel.”
He said to “land 155 people, which may happen, into an area where there are around 1,200 means the population goes up overnight and to have no discussions as regards schools, healthcare facilities and the impact it would have on Sligo University Hospital.”
He said the “Community Engagement Team has been a joke from the way they handled this from day one.”
He said “taking hotels like this out of circulation is having a huge impact on our towns, businesses and villages going forward. We have to come up with another plan to house these people.”
Cllr Des Guckian said the court ruling “has to be contested” adding that “otherwise planning laws are useless.”
Cllr Padraig Fallon said he has “been making queries on this for months and you could wait for weeks for a reply from the Community Engagement Team."
He said, “there's obviously been no learning with regard to communication because we've had this all over the country.”