*Photograph: John Mangan
FIRST arrivals of the 77 refugees at The Lakelands Hotel in Scariff will take up residence from Tuesday (June 6th).
Clare Lakelands Hotel is to come into use in the coming days as an accommodation centre for international protection applicants.
77 people are to be accommodated across 26 bedrooms at the former hotel which closed over fifteen years ago but has been the subject of renovations in recent years and is located on the main street of Scariff. A valid fire certificate is in place for the building.
Most of the individuals coming to Scariff will be new arrivals to the country and will be eligible to work, six months from their arrival in Ireland.
Each bedroom varies in size with one bedroom, two bedroom and bunk bed options available for residents, the breakdown of which will be families, couples and single females. High speed fibre Wi-Fi will be available for residents plus full board catering while tea, coffee and snacks will be provided throughout the course of the day and replenished if necessary.
Tellhill Ltd are owners of the Lakelands Hotel in Scariff but Dromboy Ltd have a ten year lease on the site and have worked with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth since April 2022 providing accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. Staff will be on-site for twenty four hours a day with a manager and/or security staff present at all times.
A memo from the Department obtained by The Clare Echo detailed that Dromboy Ltd plans to have five staff on site generally with 24 hour staff coverage and a duty manager on duty at all times.
An exact length of stay is unknown at this juncture but a twelve month contract has been offered and accepted by the operator.
There is an integration fund available to assist in linkages to local communities. Further information on this can be obtained from the Department.
Any individual residing in IPAS accommodation is entitled to a medical card. They can also avail of English language classes from the local Education Training Board. An adult resident receives an allowance of €38.80 per week. Other assistance from the Department of Social Protection, such as bus fares to attend appointments, is available at the discretion of the local community welfare officer.
Figures as of May 14th show that 73,296 persons fleeing the invasion of Ukraine have arrived in Ireland, they are known as Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs), of this number 64,132 have been provided with accommodation. 59 is the average of daily BOTP arrivals in the country.
20,412 International Protection applicants are being accommodated by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS), of this 3,461 arrived in 2023 and 15,014 in 2022. The most recent seven day average number of daily IP arrivals into the Republic of Ireland is 138.
Scariff residents are to hold a public meeting on the plans for the Lakelands later this week.
Broadford native, Matt Moroney who is seeking a Fianna Fáil nomination to contest the local elections in the Killaloe Municipal District believed better consultation was needed. “As we saw with the Ukrainian refugees when proper consultation was had local people opened up their homes and communities to help in any way they could and if proper discussion was had and the local communities informed of these big decisions to the small rural settings these plans are proposed for”.
Elected representatives need to engage with Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman (GP) on what Moroney called a “serious issue in East Clare”. He stated, “hold proper engagement meetings on any plans to move asylum seekers to any small towns or village and to make sure that proper amenities and health care is provided for them if they do arrive”.
