Man charged in relation to threats made to direct provision centre

Gardaí said they are taking this very seriously and are investigating. Picture Dan Linehan

A man has been charged after threats were made to burn down a direct provision centre in Co Wicklow.

The man, aged in his 40s, will appear at Wicklow District Court tomorrow.

Almost 300 asylum seekers reside at the former Grand Hotel in Wicklow town.

It is understood that two men walked into the direct provision centre in Wicklow town and threatened to burn the place to the ground.

The incident happened just over a week ago.

The owner of the former hotel has also received threats via email and social media. He has also received a number of threatening phone calls.

"I've had a number of emails, a number of phone calls with threats, people call to my family home. We've had all of that stuff," said Adrian Shanagher.

"There have been calls in the middle of the night from private numbers. We have had two instances of individuals walking into the premises threatening to burn the place down."

Tensions have been high in Wicklow town after a number of families were moved out of the direct provision centre to allow mainly single men to be accommodated there.

Meanwhile, a protest is planned in Dublin's East Wall this afternoon in response to the housing of a number of asylum seekers in the old ESB building in the area.

Locals say they were not consulted before the decision was taken to accommodate male-only asylum seekers.

This afternoon's protest follows one held over the weekend which saw 200-300 people stopping traffic on the road.