'A small community with a massive heart': Mahon prepares to welcome Ukrainian refugees in new modular homes 

“Mahon is a very small community but we have a massive big heart. We are a welcoming and open community,” Ms Buckley said.

“When Mahon was being developed in the 1980s, the people who already lived here welcomed us into Mahon, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be doing the same now.”

The identical modular homes are the first of an estimated 700 such homes which are due to be built for Ukrainians on various sites across the country.

Each can accommodate four people which means the Mahon development could be home to up to 256 people within weeks.

Despite a handful of small protests at the site organised by anti-migrant agitators last year, Ms Buckley, a Foróige youth leader in the local youth club, who moved to Mahon in 1981 aged nine, grew up in the suburb, and is now raising a family there, said locals are ready to welcome the Ukrainian families with open arms.

And she dismissed concerns that the area will struggle to cope with the numbers.

The area is well-serviced with shops, a credit union, two chemists, and several GPs and medical centres, so there should not be any undue pressure on services, she said.

“There are plenty of services here that will be able to help. And there is a good amount of clubs and activities that will help the children, and the adults integrate,” she said.

Several local sporting clubs are already planning a combined open day at the local community hall to welcome the new arrivals, with Ringmahon Rangers FC planning a specific family day towards the end of the month.

As part of the State’s humanitarian response to the Ukrainian crisis, the Government agreed last June to roll out a rapid-build housing programme to provide accommodation for families fleeing the war.

It aims to build 700 units to provide short-term accommodation to 2,000 Ukrainians at several sites across the country.

Contractors moved on to the site in Mahon on November 7, 2022 and seven months on, the site is landscaped, roads tarmacced, street lights installed, and the homes are furnished and ready for occupation. The development will be managed by an approved housing body.

Modular home specifications

Each two-bedroom unit has a lifespan of 60 years, measures 45sq m, and can accommodate four people, comfortably.

They have been built to an A2 energy standard, have a shared kitchen/living room space, a bathroom, with toilet and shower, and two bedrooms, one with a bunk bed and a built-in wardrobe, and the other with two single beds or a double bed, depending on requirements.

The units come fully furnished, with sofas, a kitchen table and chairs, a fridge freezer, a washer dryer, an oven, a microwave, and a toaster, with bedlinen included. A TV will not be provided.

The homes have a small back garden, which has been seeded, and a clothesline will be provided.

How the homes are allocated

A department spokesperson said the allocations policy sought first to identify families of four in emergency accommodation as close as possible to the site and where accommodation contracts were close to ending. Officials then began “moving out in concentric circles” to identify others.

A UN agency, the International Organization for Migration, is liaising with the families on the relocation process, and with schools in the area.

The department says it has also been liaising with local services and groups, including family centres, local development networks, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health, on ensuring supports are in place for the new residents.

The same process will be followed in relation to the other modular homes sites in the first phase of rollout — in Cavan Town, where 28 units are planned, Claremorris, Co Mayo (28), Thurles, (62), Doorly Park, Co Sligo (22), Rathdowney, Co Laois (42), Clonminch, Co Offaly (64) where work is due to be complete over the coming weeks.

Work on sites in phase two is due to start in the autumn.

A senior official insisted that people will not be plucked from hotels in other counties and relocated against their will under the cover of darkness.

“They will be helped by the International Organization for Migration to come here, and will be ensuring that their arrival here is safe, and in the knowledge that they are fully welcomed by the people here,” the spokesperson said.

“The important message is to say, by and large, the vast majority of people in Ireland warmly welcome these people. They should not be subjected to any kind of unwelcome attention.

These are people fleeing war, they are traumatised people, missing families.

“They are on edge every day wondering what kind of news they will get from Ukraine. They deserve the support of the local community and I know that here in Mahon, they are absolutely going to get that. They are going to be fully integrated into community.

“In a month’s time, this road will just be like any other road, there will be children playing ball, skipping, and hopping.”

The news came as Cork Chamber outlined to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the magnitude of the housing shortage and its impact on economic growth during a briefing in the city yesterday.

The meeting was attended by industry representatives and some of the region’s largest employers as well as senior politicians including Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney.

Cork Chamber CEO Conor Healy said housing remains the number one priority for businesses as an economic enabler.

“Viability of apartment construction has been highlighted in our reports as a key barrier to economic growth and today we again called on Government to consider targeted and time-bound tax-based measures including accelerated capital allowances and VAT reductions to make high density and brownfield development viable in line with international best practice,” he said. 

Modular homes can be repurposed

The Department of Integration and the OPW said while rapid-build homes will initially be used to temporarily house people fleeing the war in Ukraine, they have the potential to be used in the longer term to address other accommodation challenges, including social housing, student accommodation, and older people villages.

“This is very new to everybody,” the department spokesperson said.
"It’s a real opportunity in the eyes of a crisis, and has given us an opportunity to think about doing something really new and this has huge potential for all kinds of things afterwards." 

The OPW said it has learned a lot from the delivery of this first modular homes site in Mahon, as have those in the construction industry.

“And on the technical side, we are now working on developing a two-storey unit, which will have national benefits,” the OPW spokesman said.