Tipperary Community Forum meeting brought forward following local response to Roscrea’s new refugees

Councillor Michael Smith, photo from fiannafail.ie

A meeting of Tipperary’s Community Forum has been brought forward to this week to discuss the local response to the arrival of new refugee families into Roscrea.

Up to 160 men women and children who’ve come to Ireland seeking International Protection are set to be housed at the Racket Hall hotel.

The Community forum is made up of the local authority officers, councillors and representatives of all the agencies within the county who can play a role in supporting asylums seekers as they arrive into the north Tipp town.

It wasn’t due to meet until later this month but Tipperary Cllr Michael Smith says it’s important that a coherent network of support is made available as soon as possible:

“That’s a meeting that is held monthly but because of the word that came across yesterday, he’s looked for all those agencies, all the different people on it, the HSE, the Gardaí, education group, all to play their part because we are hearing numbers of 160.

“We don’t know how many today, tomorrow or over the coming days and that’s where we have a role to play as elected members to stand up to work together as we’ve done before.”