Gardaí investigating fire at Kill equestrian centre earmarked for refugee housing

Residents in Kill, Co Kildare said they were “shocked” by a fire that broke out on Sunday night at a disused equestrian centre which is to be used to house Ukrainian refugees.

Five units of Kildare Fire Brigade fought the blaze which occurred at about 8pm in a shed beside the main building at the Kill International Equestrian Centre. The circumstances surrounding the fire remained under Garda investigation on Monday.

The fire happened two days after a meeting in the local GAA club at which residents complained they had not been consulted about proposals to house 350 Ukrainian refugees at the equestrian centre, which is located at the back of The Stables, a relatively new housing estate on the edge of Kill.

Residents complained the number of refugees will increase the size of the town by 10 per cent at a time when schools and doctors’ surgeries are already under pressure and the local Garda station had been closed.

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Kill Residents Action Group spokeswoman Fiona Forkan stressed the protest carried out by the group on Sunday was peaceful. “We are doing everything the correct way to get answers,” she said.

“There has been no communication or dialogue at all with the local community. We are not angry about bringing people in. We are not saying that we don’t want to help people out.”

She noted Kildare County Council had offered 10 possible sites around the county for refugees including the disused Red House Hotel in Ladytown.

In response, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth told local representatives that only Ukrainian refugees would be housed in the equestrian centre.

The department said it was intended that the equestrian centre would only be used as a short-term measure and that families would be moved on as soon as possible. “The centre will be renovated to ensure that accommodation is done in pod style with full catering, security and other wraparound services,” the department said.

“This would ensure that resident families could avail of privacy, have access to all required hygiene facilities for adults and for children, and that all meals would be provided.”

The department also stressed that only families and single women will be accommodated, not single males.

[ Ukrainian ambassador tells refugees to consider other countries amid accommodation woes ]

A Garda statement said that a protest/demonstration held by a group of people outside the equestrian centre earlier on Sunday had “passed off without incident”.

Kildare councillor and mayor Fintan Brett, who is supporting the residents, said the concerns were that the centre is unsuitable as a home and is without lighting, ventilation and possibly without a sewerage system.

“It’s a mile outside the village,” he told local radio station KFM on Friday.

“When you have a group of people that are already traumatised, mostly women and children, and they’re asked to go live in a barn, I don’t think that’s going to help their mental health.”

A resident, who asked not to be named, said there was a leaflet circulating around local estates with the headline: “What is going to happen to our children?”

He said he would have no objections if it was only Ukrainian families that were being accommodated.

“If it was a bunch of families, I said so be it. There is enough space in there to drop in a number of Portakabins so you can have a school,” he said.

Meanwhile, a group of Ukrainian refugees have handed in a letter to the Ukrainian embassy detailing the issues faced by new arrivals in Ireland.

Brothers Sergey and Vladimir Chudayev delivered the letters on behalf of a group of male Ukrainian refugees, some of whom were forced to sleep at Dublin Airport because there was no accommodation.

They said they have been able to receive PPS numbers quickly, but it is impossible for them to rent because of the shortage of housing and conditions attached to the lease.

Because they have no permanent address, many of them cannot get a job “so we receive offers to work illegally, but this is on the basis of the proposed rate, it is lower than the minimum.”

Even those who are highly skilled are struggling to get their qualifications recognised.

They asked for help from non-governmental organisations in assimilating into Irish society.

Ireland has accommodated up to 56,000 men, women and children from Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February, with more than 14,000 Ukrainian children attending Irish primary and secondary schools.

In an attempt to streamline the process, the Cabinet decided that from December, Ukrainians will be offered accommodation only, and those living in hotels will be partly charged for their meals.

A refusals policy has also been introduced which means refugees who refuse an offer of suitable accommodation will not be offered another option.

The Government also agreed to double the payments for people hosting Ukrainian refugees to €800.

Ministers have repeatedly warned of the challenge of sourcing accommodation amid Ireland’s years-long housing crisis, and warned last month that newly arriving refugees may have to sleep on the streets while accommodation is sourced.

The Government had asked its departments to list public buildings that could be modified as emergency accommodation for any newly arriving Ukrainian nationals.

The first contract to deliver 500 modular homes for people from Ukraine will be completed in early 2023.

– Additional reporting PA