Kerry hotels and hostel to become host locations for fleeing Ukrainian refugees

The 72-bed Innisfallen hotel at Fossa, Killarney, and a sister hostel, The 3Lakes hostel in Killarney town, are closing to guests from March 21 and will host refugees fleeing Ukraine. Picture: Google Maps

Two hotels and a hostel in Kerry are closing to guests and have entered into an agreement with the Department of Children to host refugees from Ukraine.

The 72-bed Innisfallen hotel at Fossa, Killarney, and a sister hostel, The 3Lakes hostel in Killarney town, are closing to guests from March 21, staff were told on Friday.

The agreement is to provide accommodation and three meals for six months, with options to extend, it is understood.

None of the 20 or so staff who work full and part-time at the hotel is to lose their job and the likelihood is more staff will be needed, they were told.

The hotel had been closed for a number of months because of Covid-19 and re-opened in February.

It is not known how many refugees are expected at the hotel, or its sister hostel, which has 10-bed and four-bed dormitories and family rooms. Staff have been told to expect there will be women and children only.

A large hotel elsewhere in the county is also understood to have entered an agreement to host Ukrainian refugees, and has closed to guests.

Hoteliers in Killarney have also been approached by their representative organisation, the Irish Hotels Federation, and asked to provide one or more free rooms for a refugee family on a temporary basis.

Bernadette Randles, IHF chairperson in Kerry, said the request for temporary accommodation was being looked at as a short-term solution for the families, possibly spread across 10 or more hotels.

“Hotels are open to doing what we can,” she said.

The Department of Children, which is in charge of the refugee accommodation programme, has been asked for comment.

Meanwhile Dr Gary Stack, a GP in Killarney and medical director and founder member of SouthDoc, the out of hours service in the South West, said although GPs were in very short supply in Kerry, he had no doubt they will make provision for the extra demands.

He estimated the arrival of 100,000 refugees as speculated would mean 40 extra patients per GP countrywide.

“However, needs must. The GPs will rise to answer the humanitarian need,” he said.

The manager of the Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, which is also under unprecedented pressure, said it was “very conscious” it may be called upon to respond to the refugees.

The subject was discussed at a meeting on Monday between the Tralee International Resource Centre, the Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, and the HSE, manager of Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Vera O’Leary said.

“It is something we are very conscious of,” Ms O’Leary said.

Even where rape was not used as a weapon, previous trauma would be triggered by the trauma of having to uproot and leave home, she said.

Covid-19 has put a huge demand on the sexual abuse services in Tralee, with waiting lists of up to 10 weeks for counselling appointments.

The centre, which is celebrating 30 years this weekend, is now scheduling an unprecedented 70 appointments a week.

In the case of the additional demands by refugees, language support funding would be much needed by the centre, Ms O’Leary said.

“We have always been quick to respond and we will do so again,” she added.