€500K SCHOOL NO ONE WANTS
Locals and Syrian families in this small town want their children to be educated together. So why is the State insisting on building a separate school that’s only for refugees?
THE Government is providing a €500,000 purpose-built preschool for children of Syrian refugees in Roscommon, despite opposition from the local community and the refugees themselves.
Plans for the new structure in Ballaghaderreen have been submitted to the local council and construction is expected to begin shortly.
However, the existing community-run preschool said the State should instead expand its facilities and educate all the children of the town together.
Gráinne Garvey and Mary Towey have been voluntarily running the two-room prefab, which currently has 33 children, for the past 18 years.
They said expanding into new premises to take in the Syrian refugees would further integrate them into the Ballaghaderreen community, which this year won a People of the Year Award for the welcome it has given to its new neighbours.
Bishop Brendan Kelly had sanctioned the redevelopment of the town’s disused former De La Salle college for this purpose and the preschool contacted the Department of Justice, which oversees the refugees’ welfare. The department requested detailed plans, which the preschool provided, compiled with the help of professionals who gave their services for free.
However, the department neither responded to nor acknowledged the preschool’s submission. Minister for State David Staunton subsequently announced, in reply to a Dáil Question, that a purpose-built centre would go ahead at the Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre.
This week, the news was greeted with dismay by Syrians living in the Eroc, a former hotel complex on the outskirts of the town.
It has been just over a year since the first group of Syrian refugees arrived there. A total of 334 refugees, including 141 children, have passed through the centre since March 2017, according to department figures. There are currently about 200 people living there.
Imad Gadir from Damascus, who is here with his wife and two children, said he would much prefer if his children could be educated with Irish children.
‘Their future is here in Ireland – they should be with Irish children,’ he said.
Abed, from Raqqa, agreed. ‘It’s better if we are in the town mixing with the people.’
Another Syrian refugee, who didn’t give her name, said through an interpreter that she wanted her children to ‘get out of the centre’.
‘It’s best for them if they go into the town every day, not just stay here. They won’t learn English here.’
In a report delivered to Government, a Red Cross liason officer identified the preschool as the ‘best opportunity’ for refugees to integrate with the community.
A month-long summer camp that the preschool provided free of charge for the Syrian children and their parents last year had been a huge success, the report said.
‘It was great to see them out and part of the life of the town and they loved it. Where they are now is like being corralled in a ghetto.
‘When they were coming here, they had a purpose to their day.’
Local Fianna Fáil TD Eugene Murphy said that building a new preschool was a ‘crazy waste of money’. ‘The whole community is
‘Better if we are in town mixing with the people ’
united in that we don’t want this. The Syrians don’t want it. Nobody wants it.
‘So why is the Government doing it? It’s part of its isolationist policy of keeping the unfortunate people separate from the town.
‘And how long are the refugees going to be here?
‘They could be gone in eight years and we’d have this white elephant of a building. Whereas if the old college was redeveloped it would be used forever.’
The town’s community preschool, staffed with qualified childcare workers, is currently made up of about a third local Irish and eastern European children, a third Travellers and a third from the local Asian community. ‘There is great diversity here and there has been for a long time in Ballaghaderreen,’ said Ms Towey. ‘This is would be a great opportunity for the community and for the refugees but we can’t get the funds to do it. It’s very frustrating.’ Local Sinn Féin councillor Michael Mulligan said the decision to build the centre on the Eroc site was another example of Government ‘failing to listen to people’. ‘What these two women [Ms Garvey and Ms Towey] are proposing makes sense to everybody – why aren’t they being listened to?’ he said. ‘Everybody has seen the goodwill the people here have for the refugees.’
Earlier this year, a group of residents accepted a People of the Year award at a televised ceremony in Dublin. The judge’s citation said that ‘many people in the community welcomed their Syrian friends into their homes, sharing food and friendship’.
As many of the refugees were young children, a callout yielded a massive donation of toys and a playroom was created at the emergency centre.
Life for the refugees was also made a little easier by various sporting and fun activities, cultural and social outings, and various other trips organised by local volunteers.
Responding to a question about the preschool facility this year, Mr Staunton told the Dáil: ‘As no appropriate childcare facilities are available in the Ballaghaderreen area, a new childcare facility is being developed at Abbeyfield Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre to provide a childcare service for the significant number of children living with their parents in the centre.
‘My department [Justice] is providing appropriate premises commensurate with childcare requirements defined under childcare regulations.
‘Funding for the premises is being provided by my department through the contract with the centre. Funding for services will be provided by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs through the Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement/Relocation scheme.’
A Department of Justice spokesman said yesterday it was ‘working with the local Child Care Committee on the provision of additional childcare facilities in the area. This work is at an advanced planning stage and details will be finalised in the coming weeks’.
‘With regard to the submission referred to, a number of proposals were under consideration in 2017 – more specific information on the submission referred to is required in order to respond appropriately,’ the spokesman added.
‘It is also important to note that all proposals regarding childcare facilities for residents in Ballaghaderreen Reception and Orientation Centre are required to be reviewed by Roscommon County Childcare Committee before being submitted to this department for funding.’
WE CAN’T GET THE FUNDS TO EXPAND. IT’S FRUSTRATING Ballaghaderreen Childcare Centre volunteers Mary Towey and Gráinne Garvey this week
MY CHILDREN’S FUTURE IS HERE – THEY SHOULD BE GOING TO SCHOOL WITH IRISH CHILDREN Ballaghaderreen refugees Imad and Hanna Gadir, with children Jwad, one, and Nisran, three, this week ‘The Syrians don’t want it. Nobody wants it’