D HOTEL IN DROGHEDA PAID €5.4 MILLION FOR FIRST 3 MONTHS AS ASYLUM ACCOMMODATION PROVIDER
The list of payments for those providing refugee accommodation for the second quarter of 2024 – covering the months April to June – has been published and shows no fall off in the vast sums being bunged to a whole range of companies and businesses who have happened upon a multi-billion goldmine.
Payments for the first six months show that the more than €2.1 billion paid out in 2023 will be surpassed again this year. In 2021 the total figure for the year was €186 million. The daily cost in accommodation alone is now approaching €6,000,000.
This has clearly tempted entire new entities to enter the “market”, and along with others to buy up or to transform hotels and other hospitality and leisure centres to asylum accommodation, which could be fairly described as an entirely unproductive part of the economy.
You will possibly hear of the other headline figures later on – something that no other media outlet was remotely interested in before Gript shone a torch – but for the moment here are some of the highlights peppered with updates on how old friends of ours have been getting on in their heroic entrepreneurial endeavours.
Top of the list once again is Michael McElligott’s Cape Wrath which owns City West. They managed to eke out close to €19 million in the second quarter alone. So, congrats to Mick and the other shareholders in Alva Glen Investments. They have now earned more than €70 million in payments from the taxpayer.
We would name the other shareholders individually, but in the case of Hotel Developments Limited which is down for a 26.24% stake a Companies Registration Office (CRO) search brings you to a company that was supposed to have been dissolved in 1962, has no address, no directors and no owners. And yet it is listed as a shareholder in Alva and three other companies. One of which, BG Topco is 43% owned by yourself. Well, NAMA, that’s us isn’t it? We pay their bills anyway….
Quick shout out to the Collins family, the McGarrys and Tanya Hennigan of Townbe currently engaged in a battle to enrich Coolock and environs. Their friends on the Left and elsewhere can rest assured that the wolf has been beaten from the door with the aid of another cheque for €5,033,602.60. No Pasarán comrades.
Older readers will recall that I have several times mentioned Vesada Private who bought the two hotels in Gaoth Dobhair launched with much fanfare by the would-be socialist Minister for Finance, Donegal TD Pearse Doherty way back in 2020 when they were promising 80 local jobs.
Vesada is owned by several companies. These are controlled by Ó Muireagáin through ACCs Morgan Investments along with Angela Morgan; Des and Jessica Connolly through WV Consultancy, and Frank Clinton through FOC Hill Consultancy.
In September 2022, Ciarán Ó Muireagáin assured Raidió na Gaeltachta that they had a six-month contract with the state to house refugees and in other interviews expressed his confidence that once the contract to supply accommodation ended that 151 beds would be open to tourists before the end of 2024.
Well, we are nearing the end of 2024 and both the Seaview and Óstan Gaoth Dobhair remain unavailable for bookings. Vesada meanwhile, which also owns other former hospitality providers in Mayo and elsewhere, drew down another €1.23 million in the three months between April and June bringing their take to over €13 million.
The Dublin footballers, hurlers and camógs did not have a great year but they won’t be short of a few hang sangwiches and Bovril as their sponsor Staycity, whose founder Tom Walsh began with a humble Temple Bar apartment rented to culture hungry tourists in 2015, trousered more than €800,000 in the last round.
Of course, as we have shown Staycity is not some bootstrap Mom and Pop air bnb operation. Venture capital and pensions funds including DEKA, DWS, M&G, ESB Pension fund, Aberdeen Standard, Royal London, Bain Capital, Commerz Real and Union Investment and even the Irish State Strategic Investment Fund have all wet their beaks in what is a vast operation, now benefiting greatly from your own generosity.
(The ultimate insult for those of you non-Dubs of course is that you are contributing to the Boys and Girls in Blue winning more stuff on your tab. Not mine, as I shall be sticking to my fading, mouldering jerseys that do not advertise the new sponsors).
In February, it was announced to considerable local opposition that the 500 room D Hotel in Drogheda was to be given over to the accommodation of persons claiming asylum. One estimate at the time calculated that the owners might expect to pull in around €13 million in a single year from their new adventure.Such a target appears to be well within reach as they received three cheques in the post for a total of €5,400,000.02 for just three months. Look after the cents and the Euros will look after themselves, as they say.
The D Hotel is ultimately owned through Fairkeep and Polarside by Keith and David McDermott.
They also own Boogran Limited through Polarside. Both Fairkeep and Polarside have been financed through the Capitalflow Group one of the overseas investment funds which regard the asylum sector here as a reliable earner with little risk involved as it is all underwritten by the state, and yourselves as taxpayers.
In case you are wondering, McDermott’s other asylum beneficiary Boogran which owns the Carnegie Court Hotel in Swords pulled in another €769,729 to bring its total haul to around €6 million.
I could go on. The old familiars are still there. Next to Cape Wrath in the list for the biggest individual cheques are old reliables Guestford, Travelodge and Holiday Inns. Another consistent heavy hitter has been Windward and apologies to Patrick Coyle and friends for not having mentioned him previously.
The Malahide based hospitality mogul, along with partner Jean Ryan, set up Windward in 2007 and Coyle has or has had interests in a wide range of hotels and other hospitality providers including Dunboyne Castle, the Gresham, the Fleet Hotel and others. It drew down €5.5 million in the second quarter of this year.
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