‘This isn't about race or colour. This is about our community': Locals protest at sale of Citywest Hotel
Approximately 100 residents from the Saggart area staged a protest against the sale of the Citywest Hotel to the Government for permanent use as asylum seeker accommodation.
It was the third night of protests outside the hotel which the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has said will now be purchased by the State for €148 million.
On Friday residents staged a convoy through the village passing Citywest. They escalated it to a peaceful protest outside the gates on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
The 764-bed hotel and conference centre has been leased by the State since 2020. It was initially used as a Covid-19 testing and vaccination centre before, in 2022, being converted to an accommodation and processing facility for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees.
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Locals claim to have gathered more than 8,000 signatures going door-to-door in Saggart, Rathcoole and Citywest. 'Ninety per cent of the doors we called to signed that petition. It shows that 90 per cent of people in the areas around here do not want this,' said Amanda Higgins.
Locals say Saggart has doubled in size since 2011 and the population went up by 46 per cent in the census between 2016 and 2022, but it does not have the facilities to cope with demand. The village has one pub, two restaurants and no hotel, a small Dunnes Stores and a small Centra.
They fear they will lose access on the Citywest site to the gym and swimming pool, though the Government has stated that those facilities will remain open to the public.
One woman said there is a large Indian community living locally which is supporting the protests on the basis that the permanent loss of the amenity will be detrimental to all residents.
'This isn't about race or colour. This is about our community. We are making a stand together,' she said.
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State to purchase Citywest hotel for €148m and use it as asylum seeker accommodation
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Mia Colgan said locals accepted its status as a Covid-19 centre, then as a centre for processing Ukrainian refugees and its current status as both an International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre and a place for Ukrainian refugees.
But they would not accept the permanent loss of the hotel as a facility for the local community without any other hotel locally.
'We were told we were going to get this and going to get that. It has never transpired. They had a duty of care to the residents and they have not discharged it,' she said.
'Now they are saying five years down the road when they want to take the hotel out forever out of the public amenities, now we will discuss it with you. It's too little too late.
'We are asking for dignity for everybody and for the Government to do their job. The Government is not being transparent. It is riding roughshod over everybody.'
She queried why the State was paying €148 million for Citywest when it was sold by Nama for €30 million in 2013.
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