COOLOCK GROUP BELIEVES PROPOSED IPAS SITE OWNERS LIKELY CONSIDERING INJUNCTION
Coolock Stands Together (CST) which is the organising group for the ongoing protests against the proposed IPAS accommodation centre at the former Crown Paints site has issued a statement on recent developments involving contacts with the owner of the site and a mediator.
The statement, posted on the Coolock Stands Together Facebook page, refers to a meeting that was held last Tuesday, September 10, between a neutral mediator and members of the CST committee. Persons approved by the IPAS contractor, Paul Collins, were to have attended, but according to the committee they pulled out at the last moment.
Collins, of Bandon County Cork, is listed with Dublin City Council as the registered owner of the site on behalf of Townbe Unlimited of which he and Tanya Hennigan are the directors.
Gript understands that the local Garda Superintendent was involved in facilitating the meeting at the request of the committee but did not attend in person. According to the local committee, the person who they describe as a “representative” of the contractor, but who stated that he has no personal interest in the site. did attend and there was a frank discussion and exchange of views. Two representatives of SMS, Secure Management Solutions, were also to have attended but did not.
According to the Coolock Stands Together statement “The representative heard us out and is under the impression that an IPAS centre will happen in Coolock and that some locals can work in it and that this will generate jobs for the community.”
They, however, informed him at the meeting that the local community is opposed to the placing of the centre under any terms and that as far as they are concerned “no IPAS centre will be going into Coolock and we can’t be bought.”
Gript understands that contacts are ongoing, and that the mediator is to come back to the committee with further proposals in the next number of days. They are insistent that Collins on behalf of the owners of the site through Townbe Holdings – who include other members of Paul Collins’ family, in addition to Tanya Hennigan and Swiss residents Melanie and Peter McGarry – come to a public meeting to “explain what his plans are and to listen to the people of Coolock and surrounding areas.”
Townbe Unlimited was established in 2015, and has to date drawn down more than €38 million in payments from the taxpayer through the state for the accommodation of people claiming refugee status.
Paul Collins and Melanie McGarry have long experience in the multi billion Euro refugee accommodation sector. They were both directors of a company called Combin Properties which bought the Abbeyfield Hotel and an estate of 52 houses at Ballaghaderreen in 2015. Syrian refugees were moved into the Collins/McGarry property in 2017.
Combin Properties was registered in Bermuda care of Remcoll Capital which is ultimately owned by Christopher Collins, along with Melanie and Peter McGarry, through Arbortree Holdings and Dearthair Holdings. Combin Properties is not registered in Ireland.
Remcoll is firing away it seems and I suppose it can fairly claim to be living up to its promise to “make a social impact” given the involvement of its principals in the asylum accommodation sector.
The company website features a letter from its founder Paul Collins who refers to Remcoll’s “social mission” and his belief in the need to “work together towards a solution.”
In that spirit, he may see the virtue in engaging with the people of Coolock in order to assess the likely social impact of the placement of another IPAS centre in a part of Dublin which, many informed observers would agree, is ill-fitted to cope. This is especially true given that such a centre is to be sited on the location of a former major local employer and which promises no such benefits in terms of jobs.
The Coolock Stands Together statement ends with a call for local people to be “extra vigilant at Crown” as they suspect that the contractor will proceed with an injunction over the coming days.
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