‘Our goodwill has been abused' – Locals outraged as only hotel to be turned into IPAS centre

Sunday World

24-04-2025

'enormous loss' |
'We have 200 buses that pass through our village daily, and we no longer have a hotel'
The Merriman Hotel, in Kinvara, Co Galway
The Kinvara Community Council (KCC) said the Merriman Hotel was first used to temporarily house a group of asylum seekers in 2019 and has then been used to accommodate Ukrainian refugees since 2022.
Community spokesperson Eamonn Coy said 'Back in 2019 we were asked if we would agree for the hotel to be used for a maximum period of three months for emergency accommodation for a small group of asylum seekers. We naturally agreed with that. But the hotel was meant to remain an hotel.
'We allowed on goodwill to carry forward, when the war happened in Ukraine we thought we have to agree to the hotel being used for a period.
'But there's always a stage where goodwill will come to an end, particularly when it has been abused, and here in Kinvara we are seeing nothing but a massive abuse now.
Mr Coy said that in recent months a two-year contract has been signed to turn the hotel into an IPAS centre to accommodate 98 residents.
The community has strongly opposed the idea and argued that the lack of tourist accommodation in the village is seriously affecting their economy, and the hotel should be returned to the community, as it was intended initially.
'We have been putting a very difficult place here in Kinvara. We're a small coastal village along the Wild Atlantic Way, and very much a critical part of the Wild Atlantic Way. We have 200 buses that pass through our village daily, and we no longer have a hotel.
'So the economic engine of our village we so rely on is really being destroyed. Because we don't have a hotel for people to stay over.
'We have done a survey and we estimated that 1 million people, tourists, pass through village every year.
'We estimated the loss for our village is €2.4 million per year and over the five and a half years the hotel has bene use to house asylum seekers, the overall loss we calculated is €13.3 million. It's an enormous loss.'
Also, the community have highlighted they not been consulted on the matter, that the Merriman Hotel would be unsuitable to accommodate such a large group, and they raised concerns over the future of the Ukrainian families who were living there.
Mr Coy said: 'The hotel only has 32 bedroom, it's totally unsuitable. It has no leisure facilities, no recreation facilities, it's really inhumane to crowd that many people in for two years.
He added: 'The Government told them [the Ukrainians staying in the hotel] three months ago they should pack their bags and be ready to move out.
'We have no desire to push them out of the country, we have several people in the community who now want to provide accommodation for them and allow them to properly integrate into our community. We want to support them, but of course we want the hotel back, there's no question about that.'
Kinvara and other community councils are now forming an alliance to bring this issue to the Government's attention.
'We're now forming an alliance with community councils across many parts of the country and we'll be taking out case to government, saying you on breach of your own policy, you have to rescind this contract, and frankly, you're failing to apply proper governance and indeed the whole system of government,' Mr Coy said.
Mr Coy added the community has shared frustration over the Government's response so far.
'The worst of all for us is that the Government's policy since 2023 has clearly stated that they will no longer use hotels in towns or villages, because they recognize their huge economic impact.
'At the recent elections they were tripping over themselves to tell us how much they cared and how much interest they had in our needs, they agreed they would protect local interests.
'This morning we had minister Sean Canney, who's supposed to represent the people of our area, totally betray the people of Kinvara. When I heard him this morning on Galway Bay FM, I never heard such a strong attempt to support the Government's wrongdoing.
'We feel our goodwill has been so badly abused, we feel totally betrayed that somehow a minister would come on air defending the indefensible, it's so shocking. It's such an abuse of our goodwill.
'As a country we have to find ways of resolving this, and it's not surprising that people are now becoming so angry about this.'
The Irish Independent has contacted the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for a comment.