Councillors in Longford have confirmed that the owner of a building involved in a suspected arson attack has withdrawn from the process to house Ukrainians.
The building, a former convent in Lanesborough, had been earmarked to accommodate 85 Ukrainian refugees in May.
Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council, Colm Murray, said the council utterly condemns the fire.
"This cannot be the way that we do business in Longford. Or anywhere in Ireland," Mr Murray said.
"That if we don't like a development that's happening next door, regardless of what the development is, 'shall we burn the place down because it's better that nobody has it rather than what's going to go on there'."
The Fine Gael councillor confirmed that the owner of the building has now pulled out of plans to house Ukrainians.
Yesterday, the Department of Integration and Youth said it had received an offer of accommodation for Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) for the former convent building on Main Street.
The Department said the property was offered to provide accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine and that the property is currently undergoing refurbishment as part of the Emergency Refurbishment (Ukraine) Project, overseen by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
It also said it was unaware of any change in circumstances with regard to the property.
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Mr Murray added that he finds it hard to believe that anyone from Lanesborough was behind the fire.
"We cannot condone the actions that occurred on Tuesday night," Mr Murray said.
"It's absolutely disgraceful. We don't know yet who it was. It's unlikely that it was someone from the Lanesborough area because what we did see on social media over the weekend was a number of people from outside the area piling on to the issue."
He told Morning Ireland that six fires were set around the building and accelerants were used.
Mr Murray said it was fortunate that the fires were put out before damage was done because "half the town could have gone up in fire on Tuesday night".
"The fires were put out before there was any damage to the building, which in itself is a good thing because, for anyone that doesn't know the layout of the town of Lanesboro, there are a number of buildings adjoining the convent building and it's not an exaggeration to say that if there hadn't been a timely response half the town could have went up on fire on Tuesday night," Mr Murray said.
Longford has been "one of the best spots in the country for integrating the Ukrainian community and there is very little intolerance towards the Ukrainian community", Mr Murray added.
He said that he was not aware of any other properties in Lanesborough that were earmarked to house Ukrainian refugees.
Additional reporting by Gail Conway
