Long-term residents of Borrisokane had received pauses on eviction notices earlier this summer
Joy has turned to shock and disbelief in a Co Tipperary village as eviction notices that had been paused on dozens of residents have now been replaced with a new deadline to leave the centre by September 5 to make way for new incomers.
In July, the Borrisokane Liaison Committee announced that the residents of the Riverside Centre in Borrisokane – former international protection applicants who have now received status to remain in Ireland – had received pauses on their eviction notices.
Villagers have supported the Riverside residents who could not continue to live locally as they were ineligible to access accommodation supports such as housing assistance payments (HAP).
Many of the affected families who took refuge in the centre in 2019, have put down roots in the north Tipperary village over the years, and have found it difficult to find alternative accommodation during the housing shortage. Three families have managed to since leave Riverside, leaving seven families, or about 30 residents.
Last week, the families once again received government letters telling them to find alternative accommodation or be transferred to Birr.
“We previously wrote to you earlier this year notifying you that your current accommodation would cease to be available to you,” wrote an official from the Department of Integration.
“As you have been granted international protection status or a humanitarian permission to remain in Ireland, you have reached the stage when you must now progress to independent accommodation in the community.”
Residents were told that if they were unsuccessful in sourcing alternative accommodation, IPAS will provide them with alternative temporary emergency accommodation at Elm Grove House, Syngefield, Birr, Co Offaly. Residents wishing to avail of this transfer before September 5 were told to contact the centre manager to arrange it with IPAS.
“The optimism and hope we all had only a few weeks ago when the residents from the Riverside Centre in Borrisokane received letters to pause their evictions from the place they have called their home for almost five years have once again been trampled on this week,” said Margaret Donnelly, spokesperson for the Borrisokane Liaison Committee.
“The week before the children were happily getting ready to go back to school for a new year with their teachers and friends. Books and uniforms purchased their hearts and spirits are indeed broken.
“Again our short-sighted department government officials who have refused to meet with us cannot see the fallout from the ridiculous decisions they make. No joined-up thinking whatsoever with other departments, Education, Health, Housing to name a few.
“As it is an emergency IPAS centre the accommodation is temporary so it is quite possibly the case that in a few weeks’ time they will be uprooted again, children to leave their schools and parents to leave their jobs.
“The questions will no doubt now be asked by everyone in our community and surrounding area. Who is going to replace these well-respected and liked residents of our town, who have wholeheartedly become part of our community?
“The answer is we don't know. Nobody is willing to talk to us. The agreement finally made was for 20 apartments with 20 families. The support of our community has truly been fantastic from day one, support that has not gone unnoticed by all of the families.
“There is no humanity in what our officials are doing to these families who have become so happy and safe here. With the rise of anti-immigration across the country, is this what they are they now to face?”
Heartbroken
Ms Donnelly said the news comes just as the children are returning to school. “There was always the hope that common sense would intervene, and they would look at the agreement that we had in place,” she said.
“The accommodation they’re in is IPAS accommodation. It’s a private company that are contracted to IPAS, so it is an IPAS centre, and as we know they are no longer IPAS applicants.
“The Elm Grove House in Birr was housing Ukrainian refugees up to May. In April, they were told they were going to be transferred on to somewhere else. Those refugees didn’t want to leave either.
“The Department did not renew a contract with Elm Grove House, but now Elm Grove House has been bought up by Coolebridge Ltd, which is another private company, who are after been given a two-year contract with IPAS, and it is now an emergency IPAS accommodation centre.”
Ms Donnelly said it makes no sense to take residents out of one IPAS centre on the basis that they have to make room for other IPAs, only to send them to another IPAS centre where “it’s a 21-bedroom, former nursing home.”
“You are taking families out of what was their homes for five years, of an apartment, to putting families into a one-bedroom situation, which is temporary. So they will move the families on again, the week that the kids are due back to school.”
Ms Donnelly said one mother told her heart has been broken by the latest government letter. “She volunteers with Aware. She said the hope has gone out of her. She’s a woman on her own with young children. She said she’s just broken, she doesn’t want do anymore. Her children are so happy here.
“This is a woman that came from a situation where you could not walk down the street of where she lived. They were taking kids out of the arms of mothers, abducting them. And the children were never seen again.”
"She said, ‘to be in Borrisokane, to know that your children can walk freely to and from school, with no fear – that they’re so happy and they feel so safe where they are. And now they’re just going to be put from one place to another again.”
The families have been actively seeking alternative accommodation but there “is no accommodation across the country” and “it’s just not there,” added Ms Donnelly. “It could end up leading to protests to keep families where they are. They are not leaving any other avenue for people, only to protest.”
