Residents in the north Clare village of Corofin were told last night that a 12-month lease already has been signed between the owners of the local tourist hostel and the Office of Public Works (OPW) to make the hostel available to 20 asylum-seekers.
At a heated meeting, which, one person remarked, reminded him of the Mullaghmore meetings that took place in the village in the early 1990s, Department of Justice officials faced tough questioning from the estimated crowd of 500.
One of the two officials seated at the top of the hall, Ms Colette Morey, of the Directorate for Refugee and Asylum Support Service, said the move to lease the hostel was a response to an emergency situation.
She told the packed hall: "All we are doing is trying to put a roof over people's head, nothing else. We are not trying to enforce large numbers of persons on communities, we are not trying to force the hands of communities to various issues. We are simply responding to an emergency situation."
Emphasising the size of the task facing the Government, Ms Morey told the hall that on Tuesday of this week the Department received 175 applications for asylum, with a further 57 on Wednesday and 38 yesterday being lodged to the Department.
Before inviting questions from the audience, a successful move was made by Ms Myra English, chairwoman of the Corofin and District Development Association, to allow Mr Declan Kelleher chair the meeting.
Mr Kelleher told the room he would only chair the meeting on condition that no racist comments would be uttered at the meeting.
He said: "I will only agree to take on the chair on the basis that there is not one prejudicial remark passed by anybody here tonight. Corofin has always had a tremendous asset here of openness, tolerance and respect for diversity."
Speaking on behalf of the Development Association, Ms English said the move to locate the asylum-seekers in Corofin was a panic and knee-jerk response to a very, very bad overall situation for which successive governments can be blamed.
In a statement on behalf of the traders, Ms Trish Cleary told the officials: "We feel that no Government department has the right to come into our village and destroy the economy of our village. There is alternative accommodation in our village, we demand that you find it and use it. Do not take that hostel from us."
Mr Morey said: "First of all, we didn't know that that hostel was the main source of accommodation, I wasn't aware of that and how was I to know that?"
Shortly after Mr Kelleher intervened to ask the hall: "Is there one person in this hall that did not, does not have an ancestor in the last century who was an economic refugee? It is very, very important that that is remembered."
Attempts were made to shout down Mr Kelleher, though when he had finished, his statement received applause.
