Longueville House in North Cork to accommodate 123 asylum seekers

Accommodation at Longueville House near Mallow has been earmarked for families seeking international protection in Ireland, a statement from the Department of Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth has confirmed.

In its statement, the department said the new accommodation centre at Longueville House in Ballyclough would be “ready for new arrivals shortly”.

“This premises has capacity for 123 people,” the statement read. 

“This property will be for families of international protection applicants. A briefing has issued to local public representatives and statutory agencies.”

Briefing note

The statement follows the receipt of a briefing note by TDs in Cork North West and Cork East on Wednesday, informing them that the department had reached an agreement with Earlsline Ltd, a Co Monaghan-registered company which has a five-year lease on the property, to lease it for accommodating 123 international protection applicants in 23 rooms for one year.

Eoghan Kenny, the Labour Party councillor for the Mallow Electoral Area, where Longueville House is located, attended a meeting of local residents in Ballyclough on Thursday night, following publication of the story in Thursday’s edition of The Echo, and said that a number of “genuine questions” had been raised at the gathering.

He said that his Labour Party colleague and Cork East TD Seán Sherlock had arranged that an official from the department would travel to Mallow on Sunday to meet with a community engagement group set up by the residents of Ballyclogh at their Thursday night meeting and that this group would report back to the residents at a meeting to be held next week.

Welcoming

“Ballyclough has always been a very welcoming community, I have family and great friends living in the area,” said Mr Kenny.

“The questions related to the people themselves — who are the people, it consists of families, it says in the document, but what defines a family?

“In relation to public services, how will the people travel to andfrom public services in terms of shops and healthcare?

“If it is families, has the local school been notified in terms of maybe new students coming in, in September?”

He said that, as a councillor, he had received a briefing note on Thursday afternoon which had been sent to Cork County Council on Wednesday and said he and his council colleagues should have been directly informed by the department at the same time as TDs.