In a series of articles looking at the issue of immigration, today South East Correspondent Conor Kane examines what is behind the growth in opposition to asylum seekers in Rosslare Harbour in Co Wexford.
It is now over ten weeks since local people in Rosslare Harbour began mounting a picket outside the former Great Southern Hotel, once a bustling hospitality centre but in recent years empty and shuttered.
The building was to be redeveloped as a nursing home, a move which residents saw was welcomed by most, but it was in mid-November that news emerged that it was instead part of a Government plan to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers in Rosslare.
The village is already home to two International Protection Application Service (IPAS) centres, while another local hotel has accommodated over 70 Ukrainian people and, for this reason, the quickly established 'Save Our Nursing Home' group said the area is doing enough.
"We've got 320 people living with us here quite happily," protest group member Bernie Mullen explained, "integrated lovely, it's all grand, never had an issue."
"But we felt that the minister's proposal ... absolutely out of the question as far as we're concerned," she added.
She said they will continue for as long as they feel it is necessary. "We're not going anywhere, we want a resolution for ourselves and for our migrants coming in that need help, so it's a resolution for all of us," Ms Mullen.
Explained: How Ireland's migration policy and how it works
Colleague Angela Kehoe-Waddock said there are insufficient resources in the area as it stands to support more migrants arriving.
"We don't have an awful lot of services here. We have no library, no community centre per se. We have no swimming pool, the doctor's is 5km out the road, there's no way of getting there unless you can get a lift or you can walk ... one major supermarket, so everything is very minimalistic, but then we're a village," she said.
"With the increase in population, we need more services to accommodate this, we're only a small village," she added.
A major protest march took place in November between the village and the busy port and, in December, a rally featuring tractors and marchers brought traffic to a near-standstill for a number of hours as participants made their point.
Another rally earlier this month sought to keep the issue in the public eye but, all the while, a 24-hour presence has been maintained at the entrances to the Great Southern, with protest group members having kept their picket going in relays.
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"At the moment we are very welcoming, very kind, we've no problem," said campaigner Clodagh Corrigan, "but we were promised a nursing home, and a nursing home is what we want."
She added: "This community has a lot of elderly people who have worked hard all their lives, and we were promised a nursing home and people were happy with that."
Without any official consultation, she said, they found out the building was to become an IPAS centre.
"We already have two official IPAS centres, there are no hotel or bed and breakfast beds to be had. If anyone comes off the boat too tired to drive - tough, there is nowhere for a tourist to stay, in a port village, and we need our nursing home," she added.
Local people are "frustrated" with the lack of information, Ms Corrigan said, adding "we're here for the long haul, we're here for as long as it takes".
At the moment, the issue of the former hotel's planning status is with An Bord Pleanála, which is expected to decide on whether a change of use proposal is needed before the property can be used to accommodate refugees.
No move will be made by the Government to house anyone in the Great Southern until that clarity is provided and, in any event, necessary refurbishment work on the building has all but stalled in recent weeks.
However, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth - the Government department leading the process of accommodating people nationwide - has stated on more than one occasion that, because of the pressure on the system, the Minister "is not in a position to discount any offer of accommodation, given the acute shortage of availability and the continued high demand for accommodation for those seeking international protection".
Tiffy Allen of the Places of Sanctuary Ireland group, who support people arriving in this country seeking refuge, has urged all involved to talk.
"I think what is needed is dialogue," she said.
"It's absolutely important for local communities to be informed and for the people involved to give them all the information they need but in my experience, when people who have questions, who have doubts and who have fears have an opportunity to hear from a refugee, to speak to a refugee and to hear their story and understand them, they find far more connections than areas of division," he said.
In Rosslare, local people have said they have welcomed many but cannot fit any more, and want the old hotel to become a nursing home.
John Donovan, whose wife is in a nursing home elsewhere in the county, said they are determined to hang on.
"We were told that the hotel was to be converted to a place for the elderly, but they changed halfway through and said it's no longer a place for the elderly, it's now going to be for the refugees," he said.
He added: "We're here to try to preserve the building for the locals so they have someplace to go when they retire.
"My wife is in Kerlogue (nursing home) now, she's 22km away. We want to keep it here for the elderly as well."
