Councillors write to minister on Limerick Direct Provision Covid-19 fears

THE three Labour members of Limerick Council have written to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to highlight their fears over the spread of Covid-19 in the city’s asylum centres.

It comes after the Limerick Leader revealed a cluster of cases in Hanratty’s Hostel in Glentworth Street, with a number of residents needing to be removed from the site and put in isolation.

Cllr Conor Sheehan, who wrote the letter on behalf of the group, said: “We have decided to write to the Minister after a number of residents in Hanratty’s Direct Provision Centre tested positive for the virus and because we are concerned about inadequate or non existent social distancing in Direct Provision Centres in the Mid-West.”

Cllr Sheehan says it’s been brought to his attention that “thinning” of residents has not taken place at the Knockalisheen Direct Provision centre.

I wrote to the Minister for Justice on behalf of the @labour group of Councillors. We are very concerned about the situation in Direct Provision Centres locally. The Minister needs to take action and move families out of Knockalisheen now #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/wqNCcpC6AE

— Cllr Conor Sheehan #StayHomeSaveLives (@ConorSheehan93) May 8, 2020

“Residents there are still sharing bathrooms and the centre has refused to provide single rooms to allow people to adhere to public health guidelines on social distancing,” he claimed.

The northside councillor claimed the Department of Justice – which is responsible for the running of the centres – has shown a “complete disregard for the residents of these centres by failing to move all families out and to provide own door accommodation to allow people in these centres to observe social distancing.”