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Updated 16.48
AN IMPROMPTU MEETING of Roscommon County Council has told concerned local representatives that 80 refugees who are expected to be accommodated in a newly refurbished hotel will eventually be integrated in different communities throughout the country.
The refugees, who are mostly of Syrian extraction, are expected to be housed in the Abbeyfield Hotel in Ballaghaderreen on the Mayo border side of the county within the next 10 to 15 days. A further 80 people are expected to arrive in February, and then another 80 on top of that in March.
At present Ballaghaderreen has a population of just under 2,000 people.
Councillors were first made aware of the plans yesterday afternoon after an email from the Department to the council executive.
Roscommon’s CEO subsequently called this morning’s meeting in order that Department officials might brief the county’s councillors as to what plans are in train and what facilities will be available to the refugees.
“Some of it was informative, though the whole thing is a fait accompli,” said local Athleague councillor Ivan Connaughton of the meeting who, while bemoaning the lack of consultation with local agencies, said he expects the refugees to be “welcomed with open arms”.
“We were informed that the reason we were given such little notice is because the accommodating of these refugees is an emergency measure,” he said.
The people of Ballaghaderreen are a welcoming people, and they will welcome these arrivals. But the question needs to be asked, this move will increase the local population by 20%, will it overstretch the services available locally?
The Department of Justice says this was the only suitable location in the country. Has the Department looked into what services the town actually has?
Department response
The Abbeyfield Hotel contains 35 bedrooms, with a further 29 apartments on its grounds. It’s understood the contract to house the incoming refugees extends for two years, with plans in place to house a maximum of 240 people.
The relevant refugee relocation strand, whom the Ballaghaderreen centre will seek to house, is focused on families and children. 240 people have thus far arrive in Ireland under that strand, nearly 50% of them minors. A further 166 are expected to arrive in Ireland from Greece in the coming months.
The Department of Justice, in response to a query from TheJournal.ie, described the prospective facility in Ballaghaderreen as an Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre (EROC) which will be used to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers.
“These cohorts are expected to receive a grant of international protection within a period of roughly 12 weeks, their stay in EROCs is intended to be short-term after which they will be housed somewhere in Ireland,” a Department spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Roscommon council was the first to be informed of the plan “at the earliest possible opportunity”.
The Department has an overriding responsibility to accommodate refugees, often at short notice given operational realities. This limits the opportunity to consult broadly prior to signing a contract and it should be noted that the operational reality of accommodating refugees in a particular location only arises once a contract is signed.
Little details are available at present concerning what plans and facilities will be provided for the incoming refugees, although a pre-school facility has been mooted.
Roscommon County Council meanwhile acknowledged that the first it heard of the new plan was after being contacted yesterday at 4pm by the Department of Justice.
In a briefing document circulated at this morning’s meeting, the selection of the Ballaghaderreen property was justified as “it was the only one available that met requirements and would be ready in reasonable time”.
That document also affirms that the selection of a property for such purposes also gives due consideration to the availability of appropriate services locally.
The briefing document can be viewed here.
Earlier
Fine Gael Senator Maura Hopkins, a Ballaghaderreen native, in advance of this morning’s meeting said that “a number of questions need to be answered” with regard to the move.
“I’m not convinced that appropriate plans are in place for this,” she told TheJournal.ie. “There has been no engagement or consultation with the people of Ballaghaderreen, and like all small towns, this is a very close-knit local community.”
You’re talking about 250 people coming in. Ballaghaderreen has a population of just under 2,000. That’s one in eight people when this happens.
I’m very much in favour of Roscommon doing its fair share, but one in eight would be significant for any community -we need to be sure the proper resources are put in place.
“We need to know what extra resources will be put in place in order to be convinced that these people are properly supported. But we also need to be sure that the community and town of Ballaghaderreen is able to cope with the arrival of people who need a high level of support,” Hopkins added.
Lack of warning
Fine Gael councillor from Castlerea Liam Callaghan meanwhile suggested that the biggest issue surrounding the announcement is the lack of warning given by the Department of Justice.
“The news only came through late to be honest,” he told TheJournal.ie.
“It’s hard to gauge as yet, it came as a shock initially. The Abbeyfield closed during the boom and was only renovated during the summer.”
It had been expected that the hotel would reopen as a tourist facility for connecting with Knock and type of thing, which would have been a great boost to the town. But that’s out the window now. So from that line there’ll be disappointment.
There’ll be concern in relation to how the refugees would be integrated, where they’ll go to school. The Abbeyfield is surrounded by residences, all this has to be tracked out today. But the biggest problem is there was no word on it, and it’s something that’s obviously been planned for quite some time, yet there was no dialogue with us.
Callaghan added that he presumed “people would be open enough” to the idea of refugees coming to their town.
“These people have gone through trauma, that has to be respected,” he said.
Boyle councillor Rachel Doherty of Fianna Fáil said that she was not in a position to comment on the situation as yet as things are relatively unclear at present.
“The email only came through yesterday evening,” she said. “I’m sure we’ll have a lot of questions, but this broke so late, we wouldn’t even be in a position to gauge local opinion as yet.”
Athlone representative Paddy Kilduff meanwhile described the issue as a “fait accompli”:
“We’re being brought in to be told this is happening. The best we can hope for is that there will be proper facilities in place.”
First published 10.30am
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Or maybe… more developed countries take less steps because we have better infrastructure and more cars?
@M: Better infra for more cars would equal less steps, and fatter more obese and lazy people, becoming more like the USA all the time…
My smartphone always gives lower step readings than what I actually do as I don’t take my phone with me everywhere e.g. When mowing the lawn.
@M: Why is it that the comments have consistently more logic than the articles?
@M: or the phones are left in the Gym lockers every day ? Not a true picture as even most joggers leave the phone at home.
@M: Well, how does that explain the discrepancy between Spain (more developed with better infrastructure and more cars) and Indonesia (less developed with worse infrastructure and less cars)? In fact, looking at the map above, the evidence seems to point in the completely opposite direction to what you’re saying. Unless you think Libya, Venezuela, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Iraq and Myanmar are all more developed countries than, say, Spain, Japan, Sweden and the UK.
@M: we have a crap public transport system,what are you smoking?
@M: more developed? Hong Kong is number 1 as most people don’t have cars due to having one of the best public transport systems in the world. People clock up a lot of steps changing trains etc. Having more cars does not imply higher development.
The flaw in this study is the asymmetric profile of smartphone ownership especially in poor countries. For instance Indonesians who can afford to own a smartphone are wealthy older people who will be less active. In countries with a more democratic spread of technology such as Japan and Hong Kong you see higher activity levels. Young people own smartphones!
@Clancy: And the other flaw is that many people, especially women, don’t actually carry their phone around in their pocket all day. It’s in their bag, which, unless they are Moominmamma, or the Queen of England, they don’t carry around all day either.
According to my phone, I took 3,726 steps yesterday.
According to my FitBit (which only comes off at shower time), I took 11,587 steps yesterday.
Need I say more about how flawed this study is?
I was going to read it then I thought ” Can’t someone else do it?”
@John Brennan: there’s an app for that….
If they’re using anonymous smartphone pedometers the data is seriously flawed! My phone counts my steps too (happy to say I ‘average’ 8-9k steps on the phone counter). However, like most women, I don’t keep my phone in my pocket so the steps it’s counting are only my commuting steps. The rest of the day the phone sits in my bag, stationary but I’m still moving about for at least some of that time so the true figure is much higher. These averages seem suspiciously low to me.
that”s nuts, who is walking around our cities at the moment constantly even late into the night, refugees with nothing to do. my job does not involve walking, but don’t think it makes me lazy, more likely busy.
They don’t have accurate data, “given the same color as the UK!”.
@Adrian: the whole study is pop sh!te, what about swimmers, field sports, people who don’t take their phone jogging. Senseless drivel.
Dublin marathon just sold out again, must be a few of us doing alright.
Maybe we take less steps because Ireland is small and there is less space to take more steps. Just a thought.
Social Welfare is a plague and should be eradicated apart from old age pensions.
@Owen Martin: so true. Paying people no to work and be part of a community makes them sick.
@Owen Martin: That’s right Owen, those blind and disabled ones are especially lazy and should be left to fend for themselves. Maybe we could get them stuffing envelopes or making number plates, you know, there shouldn’t be any ‘free’ money.
@Jimmy Riddler: couldn’t agree more jimmy. There was an article on here a few weeks back about blind people being able to work.
@RealityHammer: If you have to pay people to be part of a community then its not a community, if you have to bribe someone to be part of a community then it means they hate the community by the amount you have to pay them.
@Jimmy Riddler: wow extraordinary, all those blind and disabled people take welfare of €20 billion per year !!!
To be honest this title “laziest counties” has nothing to do with the content. Very annoying click bait title. I kept reading trying to find more detail on how number of steps relates to laziness and there is nothing.
I couldnt be bothered reading this guff.
They could’ve just counted the number of posts here on a daily basis! My posts don’t count cause half the time they don’t make sense, the other quarter I’m inebriated, and the last eighth I work when I want so post when I want. People will say that’s not a total of 100%, correct, I’ll be damn sure not to make full use of my time, annoy those who say to not enough hours in the day!
@Brown Boots: i think all posters should be breathalysed !
Too lazy to read the article so came straight to the comments to get the gist of it.
Some – not all – might lazy maybe when it comes to doing anything about rotten elected politicians. Walking in protest – stuff that! They would rather stay at home and watch EastEnders or some other equivalent, brain-dead rubbish – while continuing to allow themselves to be further financially screwed, by the usual political Mafia!
@Clear And Graphic: tools to distract the masses from asking questions. The amount of non working time and energy given to watching sports is unbelievable. But if it keeps the masses from initiating a coup when their oil and gas is given away or the bank Ponzi loots their pension reserve fund then keep the distractions going.
Seems we’re too lazy to get to either end of the scale also.
Sure the local post office is never that far away when collecting the “wages” is it. Screw asking why work when the government will pay me….why move when the government will pay me?
Ridiculous study. Were probably tracking something else but passed it off as this BS
I jog 12km every day of the week. Still too much emphasis on cars in Ireland. I think we will get pretty fat in the near future as things stand.
Such a stupid article ! So generalised and using the word ” lazy” takes no account of hard working people without smartphones or the need to be mobile while working. It takes no account of gender. In some countries women work so hard and men do SFA !! In Thailand for example, there is a convenience store every 100 metres because the Thai people do not like to walk in the heat ! However, the women work so hard , long hours, low wages. The men do as little as possible ! The study is a nonsense !
What a stupid way to collect data for a study.
What % of Indonesians go to the gym or pool or take part in sports?
This is more like a study that 2nd class would do.
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