Government accused of 'bad planning' over Santry refugee move

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, north Dublin, earlier this week informed the State that it would not be renewing its six-month contract to provide emergency accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees. Photo: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

The Government has been accused of “bad planning” with regard to the cancellation of a contract by a Dublin hotel which will see more than 400 refugees forced to move accommodation early next year.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, north Dublin, earlier this week informed the State that it would not be renewing its six-month contract to provide emergency accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees.

Sources in the Department of Children, which has responsibility for managing the asylum system, said there is little hope that the contract will be renewed when it comes to an end in the second week of January.

“It’s a terrible situation, it’s down to bad planning,” said local Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis. “Relying on hotels just isn’t ideal. The hotel is probably looking to the future and thinking of the long-term repercussions if it stays with the contract.

“There’s not enough capacity in this area, it’s a big, big problem. If the hotel doesn’t renew, they’re definitely going to have to move people out of the area.”

The Crowne Plaza did not reply to a request for comment. The Department of Children informed the hotel’s residents on Wednesday that moves to alternative accommodation would be carried out in the coming weeks.

Refugees within the Crowne Plaza Hotel were told by the department in a letter:  “We will not be in a position to confirm where you are moving until you receive your letter with the location.”  Photo: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

“We will not be in a position to confirm where you are moving until you receive your letter with the location,” a letter  from the department to each of the residents said, adding that requests to be moved to specific locations could not be accepted “because we are simply not able to fulfill these requests”.

Labour TD Aodhan O Riordain said the situation is “not as simple as Killarney may have been”, in reference to a similar situation in recent weeks which saw a decision by Government to re-house Ukrainian refugees from a hotel in the Kerry town reversed at the last moment.

“I don’t know what solution we’re going to be able to find,” Mr O Riordain said, adding that he “wouldn’t blame the minister”.

“I’d blame the previous department which left the solutions for this type of accommodation purely in the hands of the private sector,” he said. The Department of Justice managed Ireland’s asylum system before responsibility transferred to the Department of Children in late 2020.

“Short-term solutions are always short term, and using a hotel leaves the constant possibility that they could pull the plug. But we can blame everyone under the sun, it’s not going to change anything.”

The majority of the people living in the hotel are asylum seekers, while a number of the children staying there are in attendance at local schools. Four of those children are pupils at Our Lady Immaculate national school in Darndale, about three miles from the Crowne Plaza.

Margaret Hughes, principal of Our Lady Immaculate national school in Darndale, said that any move would be “traumatic” for everyone involved.

She said that any move would be “traumatic” for everyone involved, adding that thus far she had “heard nothing at all from the department”.

Earlier, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Tanya Ward, said that the system for accommodating refugees is not working. She said that new accommodation options need to be examined.

“This is an extraordinary situation,” she told RTE’s Claire Byrne Live. “It is known that hotel rooms are not good for children, it is stressful living in a hotel for a long time. They need independent space,” she said.