A Kerry County Councillor is seeking clarity on whether a former Irish College in North Kerry will be used to house asylum seekers.
Sinn Féin councillor Robert Beasley sought clarity on the future plans for the former Irish College in Ballybunion at the recent Listowel Municipal District meeting.
Cllr Robert Beasley says there are rumours stating the former Irish College in Ballybunion is being prepared for asylum seekers.
He says in Kerry we’ve been open to welcoming Ukrainian refugees, but he feels there should be a cap on the numbers coming into the county and into Ballybunion, where he says they exceed 30% of the population.
The Sinn Féin councillor says there would be a lot of difficulty if the college was being prepared for asylum seekers and stated he thought Kerry County Council should know due to the change of use from a college to residential housing.
Director of Services with the council, Martin O’Donoghue says the Ukrainian refugee programme isn’t part of the social housing programme; he says the council just deals with housing for people on the social housing list so he doesn’t know what the plans for the Irish College in Ballybunion are.
He stated the accommodation provision for the Ukrainian crisis is exempt from planning, and says the change of use would, and could, happen without this type of planning application, therefore Kerry County Council wouldn’t be made aware.
