The £370,000 homes built for Ukrainians that have infuriated Ireland: As the country faces a housing crisis, families fume about war refugees getting brand new accommodation
Families in Ireland are furious as war refugees are given brand new £370,000 homes as the country faces a major housing crisis.
The modular homes, which include a kitchen-living room, children’s room and master bedroom, are fully equipped with dishes, bed linen, towels and even cleaning products.
Funded by the Irish government, the houses, which were initially supposed to cost around £167,000 each, have risen to almost £400,000, a report from the Office of the Controller and Auditor General showed.
By last month, 572 of the new homes had been built, but the construction of 82 new homes in Haywood, Clonmel, had been postponed until April 2025 due to disruption caused by ongoing protests at the site.
Once the project is completed, the modular homes will house 2,640 Ukrainian refugees.
Families in Ireland are furious as brand new modular homes worth £370,000 are handed over to Ukrainian refugees amid housing crisis
The houses have a kitchen-living room, children’s bedroom with bunk beds, master bedroom and are even provided with cleaning products.
Once the project is completed, the modular homes will house 2,640 Ukrainian refugees
In June this year, the group Clonmel Concerned Residents invited locals to take part in a protest at the Haywood housing site, and recently Irish citizens have used X, formerly Twitter, to criticize the government for prioritizing refugees over its own population.
Last week a resident wrote: ‘We are being fooled by this government. The Ukrainians don’t need a €450,000 modular house. They just need temporary housing.”
Another said: ‘They’ve been given trillions and we’re even paying for modular homes in Ukraine… Yet the Irish can’t have a modular home in their own garden as a cheap alternative to the housing crisis.’
A third angry Irish citizen added: ‘Ghetto, caravan park, mountain, inner city, red neck, so many descriptive terms. Poor people scratch for a living versus the elite.
‘I have a middle income and am financing a modular home after 30 years with one employer. To use 25% of my income to finance Ukraine is simply wrong.”
Another said: ‘I think I saw an Olympic competitor from Ukraine get a modular house. He would be perfect to fight the war. Young, fit. Be a more honorable way to serve his country than to cut off the Irish’.
Over the summer, Clonmel Concerned Residents stressed that the government should first help the large number of Irish families without shelter, rather than those fleeing war in Ukraine.
The fully furnished homes were planned to cost the Irish government £167,000 per unit, but this has risen to £370,000
The children’s room in the house has a bunk bed and radiator
Residents of Ireland are angry about the move which is expected to see the modular homes accommodate 2,640 Ukrainian refugees by April 2025.
In June this year, protests broke out around the housing development site in Clonmel
Protesters waving both the union flag and the Irish tricolor took part in an anti-immigration protest outside Belfast City Hall IN Northern Ireland on August 3, 2024.
‘The Clonmel Concerned Residents Group is requesting a list of all buildings and sites in and around Clonmel that have been offered to house asylum seekers and refugees,’ they said.
‘We would also like to know how many have been accepted. And how many asylum seekers and refugees are currently housed in Clonmel.”
During the violent protests, a man was arrested and charged with assault, criminal damage and public order offences.
In another incident, a local attack took place where a truck was destroyed while delivering to the construction site.
The truck’s windshield was shattered when a rock was thrown through it.
Previous attacks on the site saw the tires of a Garda car slashed and other equipment set alight, while a security guard was also hospitalized after an attack the following month.
The group has been protesting at the site since announcing its intention to create the town’s modular village, similar to the one in Thurles, and said they would not back down until a solution was found.
The houses are located on sites owned by the Office of Public Works, county councils, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Health and Safety Executive.
Protesters take part in the Ireland Says No anti-refugee rally outside The Custom House in Dublin, March 22, 2024
Protesters took to the streets of the Irish capital in July to protest against the housing of asylum seekers in an old factory
According to the original plans from January 2023, the modular housing project would build 700 units for Ukrainian refugees and other temporary protection beneficiaries by February 2023.
This was just eight months after the Irish government approved the proposal, which was classified as a ‘matter of extreme urgency’ following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, the planned completion date is now April 2025, with plans to build a total of 654 homes – despite the country suffering a long-term housing crisis.
And it has had devastating consequences for Irish citizens.
In October 2022, a man who returned to Dublin after retiring from teaching in Saudi Arabia took his own life because he believed he was a failure because he could not afford to buy a house in Ireland, a report revealed. judicial investigation.
Michael Griffin, 66, was found dead in the water near Howth on October 21, when his aunt revealed her cousin had been feeling down since returning home in September 2022, feeling stupid for not having enough money to buy a car. to buy a house.