There are grounds for the establishment of a Government tribunal to scrutinise where “the billions of euros of taxpayers’ money is actually going” with regards to accommodation for asylum seekers and immigrants to Ireland, Laois-Offaly Independent Carol Nolan TD has said.
This comes following Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s admission in response to Parliamentary Questions from Deputy Nolan that his department doesn’t know how many times it has awarded contracts to people who didn’t own the properties they offered to house asylum seekers.
However, Minister O’Gorman said that his Department has been made aware of “some instances” where it became apparent that the service provider or potential service provider for temporary accommodation to BOTPs was not the outright owner of the property and had not obtained permission from the owner before making an offer to the Department.
“In one such circumstance, the contract was not signed by my Department,” Minister O’Gorman said.
“In another instance, where a service provider had already been providing accommodation services before my Department was made aware that they had not obtained permission from the owner and the own sought the return of the property, the contract was terminated.”
Follow-up PQs from Deputy Nolan regarding how often this has taken place and how much has been paid out to such providers before the contracts were terminated received the response that the Department “does not collate information” on the frequency, and was unable to provide details of the “cost paid to each provider”.
Speaking to Gript, Ms Nolan said that there are “sufficiently robust and persuasive evidential reasons for the Government to consider establishing a strictly time limited tribunal of inquiry and investigation into where precisely the billions of euros of taxpayers’ money is actually going”.
“Who is benefitting from the reckless financial largesse of the Irish state? Much of the evidence now points to incredibly wealthy investment funds, pension funds, speculators and those whose sole interest is not to assist the humanitarian impulse of the Irish people, but to exploit, however ‘legally’ an opportunity for obscene profits,” she said.
The “utter inadequacy” of safeguards ensuring proper contractual agreements have been exposed, Ms Nolan said, adding that by the time the State knows what is happening, “untold sums of money have been handed over”.
“We need to end the gold plated gravy train that the Irish asylum and immigration industrial complex has become,” the deputy said.
The Department said in response to Deputy Nolan’s questions that the accommodation provider “must ensure that the property is of an adequate standard” and that they will “provide the services in accordance with good industry practice and comply with all applicable laws including but not limited to all obligations in the field of health and safety, environmental, social, child protection, and labour law that apply at the place where the services are provided”.
“If a property is contracted and it is later brought to the attention of my Department that a provider might be in contravention of their contractual obligations, my Department will take the appropriate steps to ensure an accommodation provider rectifies these matters in compliance with the relevant legislation,” the response read.