A Dublin couple who relocated to Kerry four years ago under the Rural Resettlement Scheme, and who brought a convicted rapist into their Ballybunion home, will not be returning to the town.
Local people have stressed that they have not driven out the family but are relieved at the man's departure.
The family, which includes five children aged from 10 to 17, left Ballybunion on Thursday after residents in the Marconi housing estate, where the family had lived for more than a year, learned that a nephew was living in the local authority house with them.
He had moved there in February after having served a 12-year jail sentence for the rape of two women. The family, originally from Blanchardstown, were the first Dublin family to move to Kerry under the resettlement scheme. They lived in a cottage in another part of the county before successfully applying to Kerry County Council for a local authority house.
However, once the Kerryman newspaper broke the story on Wednesday, people in the neighbourhood, where up to 80 young children play each day, became so concerned that the family felt they had no future in Kerry.
It is understood the Garda authorities in Kerry had also made known their concerns. Having left Kerry, the family were temporarily housed by Dublin Corporation in bed and breakfast accommodation in the Rathgar area. On Monday next, they are hoping the corporation will allocate them a home in Dublin.
Residents in the Marconi Estate had no quibble with the family, but yesterday questioned the wisdom of their decision to bring a a convicted rapist into an estate of 40 houses which contains many children. There was relief the man had left, but most people said the family were welcome to return. Mothers were concerned for young and teenage girls on the estate, but older women were also worried. Ms Queenie Conroy (73), a widow, said that on Wednesday she received a call from a friend who said she had something important to tell her.
Ms Conroy lives on one of the end houses on the estate. "She told me we had a rapist among us and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I live alone and that night I was out of my mind with worry. "Sometimes in the evening I don't pull the drapes, I just sit alone watching television. But when I heard that a person like this was living just across the road from me, I no longer felt safe. I telephoned the gardai and told them how frightened I was. They assured me that something would be done and I felt better then.
"My belief was that if you had a local authority house you could not bring other people in to live in it. I made this point to the Rural Resettlement Kerry branch, but I didn't get a very helpful response."
A mother of four, who asked not to be named - "in case he comes back" - said she became alarmed after hearing that the man was living not far from her home.
"As far as I'm concerned, we should have been notified of his presence and I think now that the Rural Resettlement Scheme has lost respect in this area. I couldn't sleep at all the night I heard the news. This is a great estate for kids, but when you think that boys and girls were playing around when there was a rapist in their midst, you shudder. I went straight to the gardai and they confirmed to me that he was here.
"I want to make the point, though, that no one drove the family out - they left of their own accord."
According to the Kerryman, there are at least five convicted murderers and over 20 serious sex offenders living in the Kerry area. However, according to a report by Kerryman reporter Conor Keane, while Kerry gardai do not have a register of serious offenders for the county, past offenders are known to them and are living "relatively normal lives".
Ms Maureen Hartney Cronin, a spokeswoman for the Rural Resettlement Scheme in Kerry, said yesterday that the normal vetting procedures had been carried out on the family.
Rural Resettlement was not to know that a convicted rapist had been invited to live with them on a local authority housing estate.