Residents at Glendalough Estate in County Wicklow have insisted there is ‘absolutely no way’ the area can cater to hundreds of Ukrainian refugees.
Since the war broke out in spring 2022, the Government has helped source accommodation for Ukrainians arriving in Ireland and it recentlyNot all residents are happy with the news;
Kaz Baliński and his family live in the sprawling Glendalough House but the estate itself is owned by a trust, meaning he had no involvement in the decision to house the Ukrainians in the local area.Mr Baliński said he is concerned for the refugees and believes the area is too small to cope with such a large increase in the population.
The Department has been allocated €1.5bn for the Ukraine response in 2024 to continue to provide short term emergency accommodation for people fleeing Ukraine 🇺🇦Mr Baliński suggested conditions in some of the Irish camps are akin to those his family lived in in the 1940s. “The conditions of the people in Stradbally are pretty much what my family ran from in the Second World War,” Mr Baliński.When asked what the Government should do to house refugees who arrive in Ireland he replied, Mr“ schools, convents and bits and pieces like that, they could house people with proper shelter,” he said.