Kerry County Council is asking the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to reconsider plans to house 70 asylum seekers in Killarney.
The department says temporary emergency accommodation is to be provided at the Harmony Inn trading as Kingscourt Inn on the Muckross Road for male international protection applicants.
In a letter to the department, Kerry County Council’s Director of Services, Economic and Community Development, Niamh O’Sullivan, outlines concerns in relation to the lack of available support services for asylum seekers in the county.
In this letter to the department, Kerry County Council notes that access to support services, especially health and education, remain a critical priority for providing accommodation to refugees.
In view of this, the council is asking the department to reconsider the proposal to house 70 male asylum seekers at Killarney’s Kingscourt Inn, until necessary additional capacity for support services are in place.
The letter states the HSE in Kerry recently informed the department that Kerry currently has six international protection centres and six emergency international protection centres, which are housing around 800 asylum seekers.
There are 7,000 Ukrainians with Beneficiary of Temporary Protection status staying in congregate settings in Kerry, and another more than 1,800 living in the county.
The HSE also confirmed there’s no additional GP capacity in Killarney.
Kerry Education and Training Board has advised the department that English language support classes are at capacity in Killarney.
This letter from Kerry County Council also notes the latest CSO figures which show there are close to 9,000 (8,938) Ukrainians in Kerry.
This is nearly 10% of the national total of 92,000, and is the largest number of any council in the country.
The council notes the three local electoral areas with the highest number of Ukrainians in the entire country are in Kerry – Kenmare, Killarney, and Tralee.
CSO figures as of October 9th, show the Kenmare LEA has 2,590; the Killarney LEA is next with 2,416; then the Tralee LEA, with 2,376 Ukrainians.
The letter concludes with the council asking the department to reconsider housing additional people in Kerry until necessary support services are in place.
