We need hotel not IP rooms, says Leonard
An Bord Pleanála (ABP) has come under fire for upholding the council’s decision to grant planning permission for the redevelopment of the former Phoenix Hotel in Kinnegad, which locals fear will be used to accommodate international protection (IP) applicants.
Kinnegad Community Liaison Group, a subgroup of Kinnegad Community Council, appealed the council’s decision to grant planning permission to Simco Ventures, a Dublin registered firm, to demolish the space that housed the 13-bedroom hotel’s nightclub and replace it with 11 en-suite bedrooms (five triple and six double/twin en-suite rooms).
In its submission to An Bord Pleanála, Kinnegad Community Liaison Group said that the proposed development was “not a hotel”.
“The plan is to take away a hotel with bar and function room for local events and turn the accommodation into accommodation for refugees,” their submission to the planning board stated.
The group also stated that Kinnegad “is at capacity in terms of refugee resettlement”.
“A 45-bedroom hotel across the road from the site, with capacity for 125 guests, was remodelled in 2022 to allow for 180 refugees/asylum seekers.
“It is now hostel-type accommodation. The building is not well maintained and is an eyesore.”
The group also said that a “functioning hotel is needed in Kinnegad” and they calculate that there is enough economic activity in the town to sustain one.
They also said that the development “will not foster inward investment”.
In response, Simco Ventures said that the appeal “contains unqualified assumptions in particular that the proposed works are to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers”.
They also noted that, following a further information request, a new restaurant area is to be provided and that when completed, the redeveloped site will have 18 bedrooms, not 24.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Cllr Denis Leonard, a member of the Kinnegad Community Liaison Group, said that “locally we are crying out” for a hotel to serve the community.
“We’re very disappointed because we feel that what’s driving this is a misguided government policy, where they’ve taken over so many hotels in the country, sometimes the only hotels in the town, and they’re offering them €130 per head per night [to accommodate IP applicants].
“Somebody can buy a hotel who is not a hotelier; a developer can buy a hotel and make 10 times the purchase price in the first year after they buy it because they’re getting €130 per head per night in full occupancy.
“I know sometimes it doesn’t seem politically correct to say that. I have no problem with every country doing their bit for asylum seekers, but there has to be some appropriate control on it.
“It also needs to be a sustainable model for accommodation. It can’t be getting rid of what Ireland prided itself on, which was its tourism industry.”