Mum-of-three in Limerick Ipas accommodation still in standoff over move to Donegal

A mum-of-three living in IPAS accommodation has vowed to stay in her Limerick home, despite facing a compulsory relocation to Letterkenny and what she describes as a potential forced eviction.

Fatimah Ayodele, who met presidential frontrunner Catherine Connolly over the weekend, claims she was visited by officials after refusing to comply with an order to leave her home in Mungret.

“It is tormenting. This is become too much - it's heartbreaking. I am going to stay. They need to stop this. It is getting out of hand,” Ms Ayodele told Limerick Live.

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She claimed gardai knocked on her door on Saturday morning, waking up her and her three children, Anjie, 8, Simon, 10, and Ade, 12, who were left “frightened” and “in tears” by the visit.

Limerick Live sought a response from the gardai and were told “no incident matching that description” could be found in the system.

On Saturday, Ms Ayodele and her children met Ms Connolly, who was on the canvass at Crescent Shopping Centre, with the meeting organised by Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan.

Both she, and Independent councillor Ursula Gavan, who has provided on-the-ground support to the family, raised her case in this Monday morning’s metropolitan district meeting.

Up to Friday, almost 200 migrants were present at the estate in Abbey Court, Mungret. However, scores of them were moved to International Protection Accommodation Service (Ipas) centres across Ireland.

Now, only Ms Ayodele and two other families remain.

The key reason she wants to remain in Limerick is because her children are in local schools.

One of the schools in question, Limerick Educate Together National School, has stepped in, with a number of members of staff sending a letter to Government urging a change of course.

Ms Ayodele said when she received the initial letter informing her she would need to uproot her family 330km away to Letterkenny in Donegal, she was left “devastated, shattered” and “full of tears”.

Ms Ayodele has a full-time job as a care assistant with Avista in Lisnagry and volunteered for Tidy Towns before getting her work permit.

“I cannot imagine changing my kids in school for a third time,” she outlined, pointing out how they were originally in St Patrick’s School at Dublin Road in Limerick, before securing a place at Educate Together, just a short walk from where they are living now.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice - which administers the Ipas scheme - says the accommodation centre in Abbey Grove is not closing - but it has been decided, following an inspection, these units were more suitable for single people and couples.

Ms Ayodele believes there is space in other Ipas accommodation in Limerick that she could move to.

Prior to Friday, they were sharing 16 homes in the estate, with three families to one house, sometimes a single family of four in one bedroom sharing two bunk-beds.