Independent councillor Declan McDonnell has written to Government to record his concern over the impact the housing of international protection applicants will have on the east side of the city.
He said that the former Neighbourhood Village Centre building in Ballybane, Galway City, is to house 130 international protection applicants, starting on March 20 and his letter to Government conveys his concern about this proposal is that the building is located in one of the most socially deprived areas of Galway City.
“I am seeking guarantees that the Government will provide sufficient and extensive support services so that this influx of people will not put further strain on an already stretched local services infrastructure.
The shortage of school places, particularly at second level, has already been flagged as a major problem this year in Galway City, there is an equally concerning shortage of GPs which has caused difficulty in accessing healthcare, there are long waiting lists for hospital treatment, and an accommodation crisis has led to hundreds of people being made homeless every year.
“A briefing note to local councillors from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth says that the Department’s International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS ) works closely with the HSE and that “IP applicants access health services through mainstream services: primary care, GP and emergency services. Any IP applicant residing in IPAS accommodation is entitled to a medical card.
“But existing medical card holders are already experiencing difficulty in accessing GP services, because of a shortage of doctors, as I mentioned earlier, with other healthcare services also under pressure. The Department cannot dismiss its obligation to ensure that dedicated extra resources are put in place in order to avoid creating further hardship for the existing population. Simply providing medical cards for another 130 people in this neighbourhood helps neither them nor the people of the area.
“The building in Ballybane is located in an area bordered by electoral divisions classified as ‘Very Disadvantaged’ or ‘Disadvantaged’ in the Pobal Deprivation Index 2022. A total of 28 small areas were classified as Disadvantaged in Galway City, drawing from results of the 2016 Census, with 10 of these being in Ballybane.
“With one of the highest levels of local authority housing in the city (18.7% ), Ballybane is an area with higher than average unemployment levels and a higher than average proportion of lone-parent families.
“Galway City itself has the highest proportion of Travellers in the country (2.3% compared with 0.8% nationally ) — in the Galway City East electoral area, this rate is 3.9%.
“The 2022 Census shows that Ballybane has among the highest population densities in the city, with a total population of 13,453 population, of which almost 3,700 or 27% are non-Irish citizens
“The area has already taken in hundreds of international protection applicants, but without a commensurate increase in resources locally. My concern, as stated at the outset and based on previous experience, is that another 130 extra people will be brought into the area, again without sufficient resources being allocated to ensure that further pressure is not put on the local infrastructure, running the risk of tipping an already delicate balance,” he concluded.
