Families with children living in the Eyre Powell hotel in Newbridge, Co Kildare, which houses international protection applicants, are expected to be allowed to stay in the hotel despite other residents being transferred elsewhere, Government officials have said.
Residents at Eyre Powell, which currently houses 137 people including 27 children, received letters from the Department of Integration on Tuesday with a notification they would be transferred to a different part of the country. The department later clarified people were being transferred because of fire safety issues in the Newbridge hotel.
Some residents were given 24 hours to pack their belongings after discovering in a separate letter that a transfer to Dundalk would take place on February 12th. Others were due to be transferred to Tipperary on Friday February 14th.
“We know that this move will be unsettling for residents and want to apologise in advance for any disruption this will cause,” said the letter, dated February 11th with the incorrect year of 2024. The letter explains residents would not be told the specific location of their transfer until they received a second letter with the date of the move. “Due to the severe pressure on the availability of IPAS accommodation, we will not be in a position to take requests for moves to particular locations,” said the department.
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The Newbridge For All advocacy group, which has worked with Eyre Powell residents for years, immediately started contacting elected officials on Tuesday, warning that children in local schools were being forced to leave their home with “no time to say goodbye to school pals, teachers and friends”.
“These people are knitted into the fabric of our community,” said the group in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The group called for “a temporary halt to proceedings until residents are treated with dignity and an explanation for the transfer is forthcoming. There are no circumstances in which this chaotic way of managing people is acceptable. This centre is in operation for over 20 years and is part of the town of Newbridge.”
The department subsequently announced that families were “being prioritised to remain” in the centre and would not be moved to alternative accommodation. It said the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) would be in further contact with residents and management at Eyre Powell.
The department was made aware of a fire safety notice issued by Kildare County Council on the provider of the property, which means “the building may potentially be unsafe at the current capacity and that remedial works are needed to resolve this”, said an integration spokesman. “As a result, it is necessary for IPAS to reduce the approved capacity at this centre, and agree with the provider, and with Kildare County Council, a clear timeline for remedial works to be completed and certified,” he said, adding that some residents would have to move.
The Eyre Powell hotel has operated as a direct provision centre for close to a quarter of a century. A November 2001 Irish Times report accused the government of using “sneaky tactics” when moving 60 refugees (22 families) into the centre.
The hotel is owned by a company called Peachport, which received close to €5 million from government during the first three quarters of 2024 for providing accommodation to international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees. The company’s current directors are Joseph Germaine and Philomena Germaine, with an address in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.
