Asylum seeker plan for former An Post site in Athlone not going ahead
It appears that a plan to convert the former An Post depot in Coosan to accommodate asylum seekers won't be going ahead, after an offer to use the site for this purpose was withdrawn by its current owners.
The Athlone site was put forward as an option for use by asylum seekers, formerly known as international protection applicants, and it was suggested that this may have involved the conversion of the existing warehouse at the site along with the addition of modular units.
However, a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth told the Westmeath Independent this week that the development would not be going ahead.
"The Coosan centre, Coosan, Athlone, Co Westmeath, was offered to IPPS (International Protection Procurement Services) for international protection applicants, however the provider that offered this to us is no longer proceeding with the project," the spokesperson said on Monday afternoon.
The Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, said he was "relieved" that the project was not proceeding, as he felt the Coosan site and premises was totally unsuited for use as an accommodation facility.
"Whatever about converting hotels or converting nursing homes, converting a warehouse, to me, didn't stack up," he said.
The Mayor of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, Cllr Vinny McCormack, said the planning challenges that would have been involved in adapting the site for use by asylum seekers meant that, in his opinion, the project was always unlikely to go ahead.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department indicated it had no current plans to add modular units to the existing direct provision accommodation centre at Lissywollen in Athlone.
Last month, RTÉ reported that the Athlone centre was one of a number of sites being considered for the addition of portacabins or modular units in order to increase capacity.
However the Department spokesperson said on Monday that "there are currently no plans for Rapid Build homes at the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) centre in Athlone".
The latest available figures from IPAS, for April 9, showed that, on that date, the service was accommodating 784 international protection applicants in Westmeath. The figure for the State as a whole was 20,381.
The report also showed that as, of April 9, there were 479 international protection applicants who were without any offer of accommodation "due to current bed capacity issues".