Independent Ballina councillor Mark Duffy has put forward the idea of retrofitting a school in the town that will no longer be used for that purpose come the end of the current academic year - for use as a temporary fix to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war in their country.
Cllr Duffy, speaking at the March meeting of the Ballina Municipal District, said that something needed to be done to help home the refugees who are arriving into the county and that retrofitting the school should be investigated. He told the meeting that: "In Ballina we have St Mary’s Secondary School which will be vacated in mid June and all those students will be moving on to a new campus.
"There is no succession plan there as it stands as far as I know for that secondary school, when they close the doors on it and the lights go off, it will instantly become a vacant and potentially derelict site, if there is not heat and light and use for it.
"It has internet, water, toilets all the services, but with some retrofitting over a number of months, it could be used as a temporary accommodation site. Regardless of what happens, it should not be let fall into disrepair like the Convent building has - which is next to it."
The councillor followed up his call at the meeting by posting on social media about his suggestion, saying: "The site on Convent Hill is walking distance to local primary schools and secondary schools as well as being less than five minutes walk to Ballina town centre, meaning little requirements for transport. It also includes a gymnasium along with generous green space." He added: "A unique opportunity presents itself now to help support a great humanitarian effort and provide shelter for a displaced people, maintaining connections into the building such as light, heat, water and internet, in doing so breathing new life into the campus for the Ukrainian people.
"I’m asking for this to be seriously considered by the team led by minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as part of the ongoing resettlement plans."
A number of Ukrainian refugees have already been homed in locations across the county, and Director of Services for Mayo County Council, Tom Gilligan, outlined how many refugees could be expected to be looked to be homed in Mayo. He told the meeting that: "It is a fluid situation, here in Mayo we are doing what we can to accommodate people, I want to thank the Municipal District here; over Saturday and Sunday we got a call to try and get accommodation, by calling the hoteliers we got an additional 62 units for Saturday and Sunday from hotels at a time when it was very busy.
"The situation is ongoing, the government has talked about nearly 200,000 Ukrainians coming into Ireland. If you look at it on the basis of population, we have 131,000 here in Mayo. If you take our population in total of the country at around five million, you are talking about maybe 4,500 to 5,000 refugees that could come into the county and we need to gear up for that and we need space and so I am urging anyone who has any vacant home, holiday home, to come and get in contact and if we can turn around any accommodation in the short to medium term, we need to do this, we need to show solidarity and these people need our help."
