Families in Ireland have been left raging as war refugees are handed brand new £370,000 homes while the country suffers a major housing crisis.
The modular homes which include a kitchen-living room, children’s room and master bedroom are complete with furnishings including dishes, bedding, towels, and even cleaning products.
Funded by the Irish government, the homes which were initially meant to cost around £167,000 per unit shot up to almost £400,000, a report by the Office of the Controller and Auditor General revealed.
By last month, 572 of the new homes had been built, but the building of 82 new units at Haywood, Clonmel, had been delayed to April 2025 due to disruptions from ongoing protests at the site.
Once the project is complete, the modular homes will house 2,640 Ukrainian refugees.
Families in Ireland have been left fuming as brand new £370,000 modular homes are being handed to Ukrainian refugees amid a housing crisis
The homes are fit with a kitchen-living room, childrens bedroom with bunk bed, master bedroom, and are even supplied with cleaning supplies
Once the project is complete, the modular homes will house 2,640 Ukrainian refugees
In June this year, the group Clonmel Concerned Residents invited locals to join a protest at the housing site in Haywood, and recently, Irish citizens have taken to X, formerly Twitter, to slam the government for prioritising refugees over its own people.
Last week, one resident wrote: ‘We are being taken for fools with this government. The Ukraine’s don’t need €450,000 modular home. They just need temporary accommodation’.
Another said: ‘They’ve been given trillions and we are even paying for modular homes in Ukraine… Yet, Irish people can’t have a modular home in their own gardens as a cheap alternative to the housing crisis’.
A third angry Irish citizen added: ‘Ghetto, trailer park, mountain, inner city, red neck, so many descriptive terms. Poor people scratching to live vs the elite.
‘I am middle income, financing a modular home after 30 years with one employer. To take 25% of my income to finance Ukraine, just wrong’.
One more chimed in: ‘I believe I seen an Olympic competitor from Ukraine get a modular home. He’d be perfect to fight the war. Young, fit. Be a more honourable way to serve his country than skiving off the irish’.
In the summer, the Clonmel Concerned Residents insisted the government needed to help the large number of Irish families without accommodation first, rather than those fleeing the Ukraine war.
The fully furnished homes were meant to cost the Irish government £167,000 per unit, but this has shot up to £370,000
The children’s room within the home includes a bunk bed and radiator
Residents in Ireland have been left angered by the move which is set to see the modular homes house 2,640 Ukrainian refugees by April 2025
Protests erupted around the housing site in Clonmel in June this year
Protesters waving both the union flag and the Irish tricolour took part in an anti-immigration protest at the front of Belfast City Hall IN Northern Ireland on August 03, 2024
‘The Clonmel Concerned Residents Group are requesting a list of all the buildings and sites in and around Clonmel that have been offered to house asylum seekers and refugees,’ they said.
‘Also we would like to know how many have been accepted. And how many asylum seekers and refugees are presently accommodated in Clonmel.’
During the violent protests, a man was arrested and charged with assault, criminal damage and public order offences.
Another incident saw a local attack and vandalise a lorry as it made a delivery to the construction site.
The windscreen of the truck was smashed when a rock was thrown through it.
Previous attacks on the site saw a Garda car having its tyres slashed and other equipment set on fire, while a security guard also had to be hospitalised the following month after an assault.
The group have been protesting at the site since the announcement of intention to create the modular village in the town, similar to the one in Thurles, and said they would not back down until a solution is found.
The houses are situated on sites owned by the Office of Public Works, county councils, the Department of Agriculture and the Health and Safety Executive.
Protesters take part in the Ireland Says No anti-refugee gathering outside The Custom House in Dublin, March 22, 2024
Demonstrators have taken to the streets of the Irish capital in July to protest against asylum seekers being housed at an old factory
Under initial plans in January 2023, the modular home project would construct 700 units for Ukrainian refugees and other beneficiaries of temporary protection by February 2023.
This was just eight months after the Irish Government approved the proposal, as it was classified as a ‘matter of extreme urgency’ following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, the planned completion date is now April 2025, with plans to construct the total of 654 homes – despite the country suffering from a long-term housing crisis.
And it has had devastating consequences on Irish citizens.
In October 2022, a man who returned home to Dublin after he retired from teaching in Saudi Arabia took his own life after believing he was a failure because he could not afford to buy a home in Ireland, an inquest heard.
Michael Griffin, 66, was found dead in the water off Howth on October 21st, when his aunt revealed her nephew had felt down since he returned home in September 2022 as he felt stupid for not having enough money to buy a house.
