Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady has described the decision by Minister Roderic O’Gorman and his colleagues in government in Fianna Fail, and Fine Gael to press ahead with plans to house 80 International Protection Applicants (IPAs) in Dunlavin in West Wicklow as ludicrous.
Brady said:
“Dunlavin is a small rural community which is not equipped to deal with an influx of people for which there has been zero level preparation made in terms of community engagement and provision of badly needed services.
Minister Roderic O’Gorman wants to push ahead against local community objection with plans to house 80 International Protection Applicants (IPAs) at two locations in the Dunlavin area from 1 May, in the full knowledge that the area is absolutely unsuitable
At a minimum I believe that the government has a responsibility to determine through an audit that a minimum threshold of services exists before a decision is taken to locate additional numbers within the local community.
I have previously challenged the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Dáil over the failure of the government to conduct audits of services in areas there the decision has been taken to place IPAs.
And although Leo Varadkar conceded at the time that the government had failed to address the deficit of services within communities, his successor Taoiseach and Wicklow man Simon Harris is happy to disregard this fact.
The failure to carry out audits on both the availability and future requirement for services is failing both refugees and local communities. Dunlavin already has to deal with the challenges of a lack of resources. Particularly in respect of school places, GPs, etc.
This is an area of rural West Wicklow where public transport is non-existent. It is a self-evident fact that these rural isolated villages are quite simply not suitable for relatively large numbers of people to be dropped in without any pre-planning or preparation that would allow for accessibility to already scarce or unavailable services.
We need to know if there is an actual plan that looks at services and amenities in areas before a decision is taken. The current approach by the government is unfair, it is unsustainable, and is failing both communities and refugees.
Sinn Féin local election candidate Connor Byrne said:
“There is a lot of community anger here about the manner in which we have been treated by the government. Dunlavin is a small isolated rural community. It does not have the capacity to cope with numbers of people being brought into the community. I can only appeal to Minister O’Gorman to reverse this decision.”