Priest to visit asylum centre despite being asked not to attend

A parish priest has said he will visit an asylum seeker centre this morning despite being asked not to attend.

Monsignor John Byrne, the parish priest of Portlaoise, is to visit the Montague Hotel centre in Emo this morning with Minister of State for Equality and New Communities Aodhain O'Riordain.

Monsignor Byrne said yesterday that he had received a phone call from the owner of the Montague Hotel, Seán Lyons telling him he would be refused entry to the centre because of comments he had made about the centre.

However Msgr Byrne today said he intends to accompany the minister to the event, he told RTÉ Radio .

The centre currently houses 160 asylum seekers, about 100 adults and 60 children. The residents recently held protests to highlight the conditions in which they live in and the time they must wait before they get a decision on their asylum application.

Many are waiting over five years for a final determination on their application to remain in Ireland.

Yesterday Monsignor Byrne said he had spoken about the unfairness of the system of direct provision, but stressed that he had never made any specific comments about the Emo centre.

Referring to his phone conversation with Mr Lyons, Mgr Byrne told Midlands 103 Radio: “He told me he had a problem about that and I wasn’t welcome to the Montague.

“I asked him why and he said it was because of comments I had made about the Montague. I did say to him that I never actually addressed conditions in the Montague in any interview or in any forum.

“He had said I preached about it, which I didn’t preach about the Montague. I did address the direct provision system

“But he didn’t seem to accept that, so he effectively barred me from his property,” Msgr Byrne added.

Previous efforts by voluntary groups to meet with asylum seekers at the Emo centre failed when they were refused permission to enter the building. Meetings have taken place with residents, but at venues outside the Montague Hotel.

In September asylum seekers living at the Montague Hotel refused food in a protest over living conditions and delays in processing their applications. It was one of a number of similar protests at direct provision centres across the country in recent months.

Many of the residents the Montague Hotel stressed that their frustration was not directed at the management of the hotel itself, but at the system, which had left many waiting up to a decade or more for their applications to be resolved.

Their protest drew support from Msgr Byrne who insisted that there was little awareness of the conditions in which people lived.

“Children are growing up in an institution that in some ways is like an open prison,” he said at the time.

“I see young people who aren’t able to be involved in any recreation or activity outside school. People are isolated and they’re caught in a limbo. It’s inhumane to treat people this way for years on end”.

It was not possible to contact Mr Lyons for comment yesterday.