One of the houses, unregistered as asylum centres, in Portarlington that were being used to house applicants for International Protection appears now, since yesterday, to be empty.
According to local residents, the 15 or 16 men who were staying at 45 The Glen have moved out and last night the house was in darkness. External CCTV cameras also appear to have been removed.
Gript has been in contact with several different sources who claim that people appear to have been moved into the East End Hotel in the town last night. We have reported previously on strong evidence that men who were connected to the hotel had been staying at 45 The Glen and at other addresses in the housing estates around Portarlington.
The East End Hotel, which is owned by Noel and Patrick Martin of Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, had its contract to accommodate people claiming International Protection withdrawn at the end of October. This followed our reporting of complaints made by local residents and inquiries made by Independent Councillor Aidan Mullins regarding the use of the house.
The Martins through their company Nera Investments had drawn down over €7,000,000 in payments between 2022 and the end of June this year. Payments that were connected to the accommodation of IPAS registered asylum seekers. The East End Hotel has been a registered accommodation centre for several years prior to 2022 so the amount of payments is much higher than that.
We have also reported on the fact that the registered owners of the house at 45 The Glen claim that the Martins and any other persons resident there are in the house without their permission. They claim that they have made attempts to have the house vacated as the Martins have neither agreed to buy the house nor are paying rent.
In reaction to this, Noel Martin had taken a court injunction against the registered owners of 45 The Glen. The case was mentioned on November 11 but was put back with an interim order that the owner and other named persons stay away from the house. As far as can be ascertained at this stage, the High Court will resume hearing the case next Monday, December 6. It is unclear what implications the apparent vacation of the house might have for the injunction application.
Gript has spoken to one of the residents of The Glen who cautiously welcomed the apparent vacating of the house at 45 and hoped that this would bring an end to the situation that has been going on for over two years since she claims men who were registered with IPAS as asylum seekers began to live in the house.
She made the point that it ought not to have taken so long – and perhaps the coincidence of an election – to ensure that the state made some move to address the situation.
She also contrasted the manner in which the state will quickly and vigorously pursue people – “the ones that might owe revenue €50 for not paying the right tax last year. The people who pay the property tax…” – and their apparent laxity towards people earning vast amounts in the asylum sector.
45 The Glen is a house which IPAS has several times confirmed is not a registered address for the accommodation of persons registered as applicants for International Protection. We have also reported that Laois County Council on the request of Councillor Mullins visited the house and two weeks ago issued a warning letter to the Martins regarding the use of the house.
All of this appears to have borne fruit and that has been down to the persistence of the residents and Councillor Mullins in pursuing the issue.
The case also raises much larger questions with regard to the manner in which contracts are awarded to companies who have made billions in payments channelled firstly through the Department of Justice and for the past few years through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Without making any claims of wrongdoing, it is apparent to Gript and others who have looked at many individual IPAS centres and have done research into the companies who are benefitting that there is nothing like the same standards applied when it comes to planning regulations and probity as are meant to apply to the awarding of other public contracts.
Much has been made of the awarding of a contract for the construction of a bicycle shed and of the contract for mobile phone pouches. Some would have you believe that these are matters worthy of shock and indignation. Perhaps they are. They pale, however, in comparison to what appears to be going on with regard to the provision of accommodation for IPAS and Ukrainian refugees.
There are companies at the top end of the caper who are pulling in more in a month or less than the entire value of the contracts mentioned above. There is a clear need then for a full public enquiry through the Committee of Public Accounts or a separate independent body into the awarding of the contracts and the manner in which some of the companies operate.
This would also be for the benefit of the communities in which these centres are placed with prior warning or notification. There is also a need, from what Gript and others sense from some of what we have learned and know but cannot fully as yet report on, for investigation of what exactly is happening to some of the people who arrive here. Some of them too may well be at risk of becoming victims, in some cases of perhaps the worst types of exploitation.