Clare accommodation will remain open due to ‘national situation’, Roderic O’Gorman says

Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said he will not close the accommodation centre subject to a blockade at a hotel in Co Clare.

In an online meeting with local TDs and Senators, Mr O’Gorman told Oireachtas members that due to the pressures on the State’s reception and integration system, he could not close the centre.

He also indicated that he would be open to meeting a delegation from the protesting group.

A spokesman for Mr O’Gorman said he had “listened to concerns raised by local representatives, particularly around transport links and communications with the local community. He agreed to continue dialogue and work towards a solution that will work for all concerned.”

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Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley, who is from Co Clare and is a former TD for the constituency, said after the meeting that “the ask was to close the facility and the minister made it clear that’s not something he can do because of the national situation”

He said protesters “have their concerns and they have to be listened to, but nobody wants to see this continue, we have to try to de-escalate the tension and get things to some level of normality. I don’t know how that’s going to happen but labelling people or branding people is not going to achieve anything”

“I want to see the blockade lifted, but I’m not lecturing anybody, I’m not hectoring anybody,” he said.

Mr Dooley said it would be “premature” to talk about an “endgame” for the protest but that a meeting would be an important next step. “That’s one of the next steps, but people need to be listened to and they need to feel they’re engaged with. They’re solid people, not ideologically driven right wing activists who have a racist bent”

“Dictating to people what the ultimate outcome should be at this stage is unwise,” he said.

His party colleague Cathal Crowe said on RTÉ's News at One that he believed the hotel, which is not yet in use as accommodation as it lacks a fire cert, is expected to be used to house asylum seekers in the coming period. The asylum seekers are currently housed in chalet-style accommodation on the grounds of the hotel.

Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday, Minister for Arts Catherine Martin said she was “hopeful” the blockade would be lifted on foot of engagement between Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman and politicians from Clare.

She said there may be a “small element” within the blockage but that the vast majority of communities had acted in solidarity with refugees. Asked if blockades of roads and premises were acceptable to her, she said it was a matter to be discussed with the Garda, the Department of Justice and the Department of Integration.

She said there is a right to peaceful protest but that it must be balanced against the rights of “people who are fleeing the most horrific of circumstances (who) have a right to peacefully adapt to new accommodation”.

“Rather than blockades and rather than these protests, it would be better to tease out the issues and engage” and that “we should hold on to that tradition of being a welcoming country”.

She said the Department of Integration try to engage in advance but “sometimes the opportunities are not there to get thorough engagement before people are given the refuge that they need”.

She said the priority was to give safe shelter to those who need it but, asked about local concerns in Clare, she said “not every form of shelter will be on the doorstep of public transport, when you open the door, it won’t have the local shop there either”.

She said she was hopeful there can be some communication following this morning’s meeting between Minister for Integration Mr O’Gorman and Clare-based politicians between them and the protesters.

In relation to the policing of protests, in the context of the burning of tents in Dublin last week, she said it was “not about the garda numbers, unfortunately it’s about a minority of far right (activisits) – their behaviour is to be absolutely condemned”.