*The Merriman Hotel.
A GROUP of Kinvara residents have failed in their efforts to bring High Court proceedings against the Government for housing international protection applicants in a local hotel.
Kinvara residents Ruth Sexton, Mary Boyce, Chris Hartnett Dalton and Paul Collins sought to challenge the decision of the Government in March to place up to 98 people in the Merriman Hotel, which is currently home to about 50 Ukrainian people.
International protection applicants have been accommodated at The Merriman Hotel since 2019. Residents argued that the March decision constituted a fresh designation of the building as international protection accommodation.
According to court documents, the hotel has been used to accommodate people seeking international protection since 2019. The residents say the hotel has 32 rooms.
In designating a premise as an accommodation centre, the Minister for Integration is obliged to have regard for public interest, among other considerations, under a statutory instrument provided for in the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018. The residents argued that the Minister was in breach of this obligation in their alleged designation of the building in March.
In a judgment, Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger said the decision in March to accommodate 98 people at the Merriman Hotel was not a fresh designation of the premises, and therefore, the statutory instrument did not apply. The hotel was clearly designated in 2019, when international protection applicants were first accommodated there, the judge said. The judge said it was not possible to judicially review the decision complained of by the residents.
Ms Justice Bolger said she was not satisfied the residents had presented arguable grounds on which their case would succeed, and denied their application to bring the proceedings. The judge said the Government’s decision in March is mainly grounded in the State’s obligation to provide accommodation to those seeking asylum. The case is listed before the judge later this week.
The residents – Ms Sexton, of Sexton’s Bar, Main Street, Kinvara; Ms Boyce, of Cathercon, Kinvara, Mr Hartnett Dalton, of Northampton, Kinvara; and Mr Collins, of Crushoa, Kinvara – had sought to bring proceedings against the Minister for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability and Integration and the Minister for the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.
According to the residents, a meeting of Kinvara Community Council was in March informed of the Minister for the Department of Integration’s decision to designate the hotel as accommodation for 98 international protection applicants.
In making that decision, the residents claim the Minister failed to assess or evaluate the suitability of the Merriam Hotel to accommodate those people. They also say the Minister failed to assess or evaluate the availability of amenities in the local area, such as school places and medical services.
They claim the use of the hotel as an accommodation centre since 2019 has resulted in losses of up to €13.3 million to the local area. None of the €9 million paid to MLC Hotel Ltd through its contract to provide accommodation has benefited the local community, the residents claim, leading to the closure of restaurants and reducing opening hours at local pubs.
