A community meeting in Dundrum last night decided to set up a committee to manage the community response to plans to locate 80 asylum seekers at Dundrum House Hotel(DHH). The meeting heard calls for greater community presence at the ongoing peaceful protest at the front gate of the hotel, that the protest be expanded to include both entrances and that a leaflet be produced to give to people entering the Hotel Complex to explain the reason for the protest. Calls were also made for golfers to use other courses in the area and for clubs to cancel plans for Golf Classics planned for DHH.
The meeting heard from 5 speakers on five aspects relevant to the situation – covering dialogue to date with the Manager at Dundrum House Hotel, Garda behaviour at other protests, the difference between asylum seekers and refugees, the economic impacts of the government supports for migrants and the importance of voting on Friday and using the ballot box to express rejection of the current migration policy.
Two members of the community met with Mr Geoff Leo the GM at Dundrum House Hotel and say that hotel Management intends to erect a security fence on the property to keep the existing Ukrainian refugees separate from the yet to arrive asylum seekers. The Department of Integration announced last week that up to 80 women and children asylum seekers would be accommodated in the DHH complex.
The form of protest is to be determined by the committee and issues relating to planning as a means to oppose the use of DHH for asylum seeker accommodation were also highlighted. A peaceful protest has been ongoing at the front gate of the hotel since last Thursday. An attendance of almost 300 people attend the meeting with election candidates Liam Browne, Peadar O’Donnell, John McGrath, Shane Smith all present and contributing alongside Ireland south Candidate European Parliament candidate Michael Leahy. Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath was one of the five keynote speakers alongside Ross Heffernan, Alison Hunt, Michael Okrajek and Liam Browne. Cllr John Crosse also attended the meeting.
