Syrian children should be enrolled in school in Monasterevin

Syrian children living in emergency reception centres should be enrolled in local schools while they wait to be housed, the children’s watchdog said.

Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, warned that children in the former Hazel Hotel in Monasterevin and two other centres for refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Africa were not receiving appropriate education.

According to figures released last year, emergency accommodation is being provided in the Monasterevin reception centre for 259 people of which 132 are children.

Dr Muldoon also expressed concern that a lack of formal recognition for schools set up in the centres meant that they did not receive funding for special needs assistants and other services.

His comments follow the publication of a report of a joint inspection by officials from the Department of Education and the National Educational Psychological Service of the three centres in Monasterevin, Dungarvan, Co Waterford and Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.

The first Syrian refugees to arrive in Ireland were housed in the empty Hazel Hotel in Monasterevin.

Four families were the first to be based there and they were followed by hundreds more.

The Government agreed to accept 4,000 refugees under a new protection programme.

In January last year, a man wearing a balaclava and wielding a stick entered the former Hotel and terrified Syrian refugees and staff.

One person sustained minor injuries in the incident. When more people appeared on the scene, the man fled.