Plans to use the Golf Hotel in Ballybunion as an ipas centre for those seeking international protection, have been shelved by the Department of Justice.
Kerry TD and Junior Agriculture Minister Michael Healy-Rae says he received this confirmation in an email from the community engagement team at the department.
It's also been confirmed that the Ukrainians living at the hotel for a number of years, will be allow to remain there.
The Golf Hotel was bought by the Treacey hotel group from Waterford back in early 2022, and has been been used to house Ukrainian refugees since August of that year.
In January of this year, a group of 60 Ukrainians still living in the hotel, were told they would have to move out and find alternative accommodation, as the building was to be converted into an ipas centre.
Local people held a protest in Ballybunion, demanding that this plan be scrapped and the Ukrainians be allowed to remain.
They argued that the hotel was not suitable for an ipas centre, given its location in the centre of a busy seaside resort.
Minister Michael Healy Rae told Radio Kerry he received an email from the Department of Justice this week, confirming that it 'has no plan' to end the Ukrainian contract at the Golf Hotel for the time being.
The email further states that the department was not considering any offer to use the property for International Accommodation Protection.
Minister Healy-Rae welcomed this development, adding that the matter was a cause of great concern for the local people in Ballybunion.
