{"id":149205,"date":"2025-10-28T08:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149205\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T08:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:23:13","slug":"new-citywest-logs-show-1012-incidents-in-asylum-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149205\/","title":{"rendered":"New Citywest logs show 1,012 incidents in asylum centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the Saggart residents group opposed to the purchase by the State of Citywest and its continued use as asylum accommodation emailed more than one hundred media outlets and journalists to remind them that the centre has a long record of serious criminal and other incidents.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

They point out that the incidents logs \u2013 as previously reported<\/a> on by Gript \u2013 provide evidence that between January 2023 and June 2025 there had been 1,012 incidences recorded in the log kept by the management of the accommodation centre.<\/p>\n

Among these were indecent exposure; the possession, preparation and use of drugs including heroin;\u00a0 theft; and assaults on staff and other residents.\u00a0 Those opposed to the current use of Citywest make the point that the relevant authorities were aware of the dangers associated with the centre for several years before the events of the past ten days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They also stress the poor response from the State to representations from residents since 2022. That includes the belated and selective \u201cengagement\u201d with the local community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As information obtained by Saggart residents under the Freedom of Information Act revealed, on June 24 the Community Engagement Team of the Department of Integration requested that Minister Emer Higgins, who represents the Saggart area in the D\u00e1il, supply them with contact details for local groups with whom it wished to meet.<\/p>\n

The laudable aim of this was to meet with them and to keep them up to speed with the sale of Citywest and to set their minds at ease regarding any concerns that they might have. The list of proposed contacts did not include the local group of residents which had been organising opposition to the centre and to the purchase of Citywest from its private owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of this \u2018engagement\u2019 was a bit like bolting the stable door after the horse had bolted as the sale of Citywest for \u20ac148.2 million had been announced on June 17, a full week before the Department decided to \u2018engage.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even that decision \u2013 following several years of the Department, Tetrarch, and almost every TD of every party ignoring, at best, the requests from local people and business owners \u2013 only followed a plea on June 19 from a local representative, whose name is redacted, that the Department respond:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHi, This thing is like a hot potato \u2026 you need to give something back to the locals instead of TD\u2019s lying about meeting the local people\u2026 bring something to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following this week\u2019s events it seems that the Community Engagement Team have given themselves a bit of a shake and yesterday contacted some of the local organisations in Saggart because they \u201cunderstand that the serious incident alleged to have occurred within the vicinity of the Citywest campus and the violent protests taking place have raised significant concerns locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shared belief is that criminality, vandalism and violence are not protest and can\u2019t be allowed to prevail in our community, disrupt our neighbours and impede the work of essential public services.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that basis the \u201cThe Community Engagement Team wants to work with local representatives and community groups to help bring stability to the area and progress a way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, just as with their earlier requests for a list of trustworthy contacts from a government minister, the CET makes it clear that they won\u2019t be engaging with just anyone and that \u201cWhile the Community Engagement Team does not participate in public meetings, we are available to meet small groups of community representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

These being: \u201cLocal residents groups, who were previously invited to meet with the Community Engagement Team,\u201d and \u201cLocal NGO and civil society organisations who were previously invited to meet with the Community Engagement Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saggart residents had been given the incident logs \u2013 reported previously here \u2013 and continued to seek assurances from local political representatives, Government departments and the Garda\u00ed regarding anti-social and criminal activity in and around Citywest and within the village itself, clearly involving persons who were staying in the accommodation centre.<\/p>\n

The CET did respond to one email which referred to the logs and to other incidents which were not recorded. The CET partly explained the high number of incidents logged on the basis that \u201cThe practice in Citywest is to record even minor incidents in the log onsite,\u201d and that \u201c33.52% of all logged security incidents for the first six months of 2025 were trespass related.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With reference to drug taking, drinking and other anti-social activity in the local graveyard \u2013 photographs of which were sent to them and which I have seen \u2013 the CET informed their correspondent that IPAS had told them that \u201cInformation is regularly displayed reminding residents that the cemetery should not be used for social purposes. Residents are encouraged not to visit the cemetery or congregate in the village square. They are also informed that drinking in a public place is a criminal offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apropos of nothing that I saw in the email sent to them and which related solely to what was happening in Citywest, the CET stated that they \u201cThe Community Engagement Team would like to note that the Garda\u00ed and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration have been clear that there is no evidence of a link between the number of people seeking international protection in Ireland and an increase in crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that there are no statistics at all related to this \u2013 but that anecdotal and indeed media reported crime including serious crimes such as murder and sexual assault (including what happened at Citywest) would perhaps support a different view \u2013 this was surely a rather odd non sequitur to an exchange based on details of dozens and dozens of logged incidents directly linked to an IPAS centre.<\/p>\n

I have seen another document<\/a> from the Department of Justice which suggests that they have been in PR mode since the sale and have prepared a series of responses to any concerns and complaints that might arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That document, which is not publicly available on search, comprises of 26 pages of set questions and answers from the Saggart Village Residents Association, which has been included in the list of suitable contacts related to the sale of Citywest, which was justified on the basis of \u201csaving significant public funds\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

They admit that they only embarked on an \u201cengagement plan as soon as the decision to purchase the site was announced on 17 June.\u201d The SVRA asked why they had been told in \u201cearly June\u201d that \u201cno negotiations were taking place\u201d and that \u201cno contracts had been signed.\u201d That was excused on the grounds of \u201ccommercial sensitivity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked about the massive impact that the permanent asylum hub has had and will have on Saggart the tone of the response was that they would just have to get used to it and that all measures would be taken to ensure that the huge proportion of the population comprised of asylum seekers would be \u201cintegrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And sure if anyone still had unwarranted reservations and lingering inner doubts, all they had to do was take down their well thumbed copy of the National Plan Against Racism and recite the mantra:<\/p>\n

\u201c1. Being Safe and Being Heard \u2013 supporting people who experience racism and protecting people from racist incidents and crimes\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Being Equal \u2013 addressing ethnic inequalities\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. Being Seen and Taking Part \u2013 enabling minority participation\u00a0<\/li>\n
  3. Being Counted \u2013 measuring the impacts of racism\u00a0<\/li>\n
  4. Being Together \u2013 a shared journey to racial equality\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    More information is available here national-action-plan-against-racism.pdf\u201d<\/p>\n

    Basically, shut up and deal with it all.\u00a0 Whether that means your own community being turned upside down without your consent or approval, or putting up with the sexual assault of a child at\u00a0 the Great Centre of Diversity that is, and will be for a long, long time, the Citywest asylum hub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday, the Saggart residents group opposed to the purchase by the State of Citywest and its continued use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[87696,13431,9,10,80629,718,18,13408,13,14,6,19,87697,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-149205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-1012-incidents","9":"tag-assaults","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-citywest","13":"tag-drugs","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-engagement","16":"tag-featured-news","17":"tag-featurednews","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-indecent-exposure","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-latest-news","23":"tag-latestnews","24":"tag-main-news","25":"tag-mainnews","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115450832751179436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}