We’ve got it wrong on D Hotel for asylum seekers, says FG TD
THE Government has ‘got it wrong’ in using the biggest hotel in Drogheda for up to 500 asylum seekers, a Fine Gael TD has said.
Fergus O’Dowd said using the D Hotel in the Louth town is ‘not acceptable’ as the Government has failed to secure a ‘dual use’ proposal.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said last month that a ‘dual use’ of the 500 hotel beds would be examined with some used for international protection applicants and others used for tourists.
He said in the Dáil this would be the ‘best outcome’ for the town.
After meetings with local representatives in Drogheda, Minister for Equality and Integration Roderic O’Gorman sent a letter to councillors on Saturday saying dual use of the hotel would not be possible.
However, two weeks before this, the hotel itself confirmed that dual use would not be possible due to child safeguarding concerns, with the contract for the use of the hotel for two years signed on February 13.
‘This is not acceptable, Minister O’Gorman, nor the rest of the Government, all of you, you got it wrong, you got it damn wrong,’ local TD Mr O’Dowd said on
LMFM yesterday. ‘This is the wrong decision at the wrong time, is having a huge negative impact on everybody.’ He added that has been in touch with the Taoiseach’s office. Mr O’Dowd said it has been suggested that he should resign from Fine Gael over the issue, but he said this would be the ‘easy option’. ‘I took on O’Gorman in the Dáil, I’ll take him on again,’ he said. He had previously criticised what he said was the ‘cack-handed’ approach from the minister in contracting this hotel. ‘Minister O’Gorman is completely out of touch, he’s a disastrous minister, I said it’s bad government and bad minister in relation to this decision, and that’s my view.’
Local Labour TD Ged Nash said that Minister O’Gorman ruled out dual use for the hotel a month ago when he first met with local TDs, as did his officials.
‘To me, that seems to me to be a Government minister who didn’t have the courage of his own convictions, who decided to hide behind officials in the department,’ Mr Nash said.
He added: ‘I have never seen friends from the business community in this town so angry, so frustrated and so annoyed at this Government policy that’s led us to a situation where Drogheda now has 69% of all its commercial hotel beds displaced.’
In a response to a parliamentary question from Mr Nash, Minister O’Gorman said the D Hotel had been ‘appraised by the Ukrainian division but rejected’ because there was an alternative offering to accommodate Ukrainians. The department then said the offer of accommodation from the D Hotel would be considered for international protection applicants or asylum seekers.
‘Consequently, the International Protection Procurement Service (IPPS) appraisal process was shorter than normal and the contract to provide accommodation for IP applicants at the D Hotel was signed on February 13, 2024,’ said Minister O’Gorman.
The hotel is due to begin accommodating up to 500 asylum seekers in the coming days.
The letter from Minister O’Gorman to local representatives last weekend references support for Drogheda from the Community Recognition fund – but only €20million of the €50million fund is available this year.
Local Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster said she believes the Government was ‘stringing the people of Drogheda along’ in entertaining the idea of dual use.
‘The meetings were an appeasement exercise, a stalling tactic,’ she said.
‘He would have known, in fact he knew all along, because he said it to our faces that the dual use option wasn’t an option, and his officials verified that, and the hotel owner was categoric in saying that it wasn’t happening.’
‘Stringing people along’