The current protests in Kilcock are an interesting case study of how little elected representatives appear to know about what is being planned for the people who elected them.
Hundreds of people attended a rally last night at the site, and more protests are likely over the coming days.
I was contacted by a person in the Kilcock area earlier in the week who drew my attention to reports that an application to place an IPAS Centre in the building that had been used as the Shalom nursing home had been lodged with Kildare County Council.
I checked the Council planning lists and could find no record of such an application having been made. Then, on Wednesday it was reported by KFM radio that there had been a Class 20F exemption claim registered but somewhat bizarrely that “Kildare County Council has not been explicitly informed of the nature of the works currently taking place on the site.”
It was these mysterious works following the sale of the old building that had first alerted local people to what the plans of the new owners might be.
The application seen by KFM “seeks clarification under Class 20F of planning regulations – specifically, whether using the building to house International Protection Applicants qualifies as exempt from planning permission requirements.”
It is important to note this as this is a public document seen by their journalists and contradicts all of the claims, some of them apparently from officials and others in authority, that there are no such plans to use the building as an IPAS centre. There clearly are, and that has now been confirmed by one of the local TDs, Naoise Ó Cearúil.
The confirmation of such an application even having been made was only confirmed through the diligent investigation by journalists Martin Osborne and Eoin Beatty who had been shown the application which, to my knowledge having looked at the Kildare Planning lists for the date on which it was submitted still has not been placed on the planning lists.
Seeking to clarify this, I contacted all of the 5 TDs for Kildare North, as well as the ten Councillors whose electoral district Maynooth includes the town of Kilcock and surrounding areas.
The only TD to respond was Fianna Fáil’s Joe Neville. He stated that as a member of the Oireachtas he would not see such applications and that “even as a Councillor I don’t ever remember receiving notification of any Section 5 request but I had become familiar with the process separately.” Deputy Neville did not respond to the query regarding local community notification or consultation.
None of the ten Councillors who I contacted responded beyond one automatic response saying that the email had been received. I also spoke to a person from Kilcock who said that they had no engagement or response from any local elected representative other than Naoise Ó Cearúil.
The Fianna Fáil TD was in the crowd at last night’s protest at the site and has been in contact with Minister of State for Integration Colm Brophy. The Minister confirmed to Ó Cearúil that an application for an IPAS centre has been lodged and Ó Cearúil stated that he does not believe that the site, which is “on the same campus as a primary school” and which is a protected structure, is suitable.
PREVIOUSLY A NURSING HOME
The building had been used as the Shalom Nursing Home and had been run by the Presentation Sisters who had decided to close the home in May 2023. A HIQA report in 2022 found that there had only been 19 people living there at the time, all of whom appear to have been elderly members of the Presentation order.
The building at Church Street is still registered as Shalom, and I have discovered evidence that the site is now in the ownership of Frostbreak Unlimited.
The company has a registered charge, dated May 14 this year, with Hatch Street Finance. Further particulars supplied to the CRO state that the charge related to “the premises known as Shalom Nursing Home, Church Street, Kilcock, County Kildare,” and they attach a “deed of conveyance dated in or about the date of the Debenture made between (1) Presentation Sisters Property Trust Company and (2) Frostbreak Unlimited Company.”
The charge also covers six residential houses at Dean’s Court adjacent to the old building and to “the playing field situated at the rear of Presentation Convent at Church Street.”
Local people including those who contacted Gript and the person I spoke to noted the proximity to the two schools which are are either on the same grounds, as noted by Deputy Ó Cearúil, or close to the site another a hundred yards away. They are also concerned about the loss of the sports field. That needs to be stressed as all of these claims regarding the impact of the proposed centre on the local schools and amenities were and are being dismissed by some as misinformation and hysteria.
Frostbreak Unlimited was registered on March 21 and is registered as being owned by another company, Branchbreak Unlimited, which was registered on March 11, 2024 and is wholly owned by Diarmuid O’Sullivan of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. The other director of Frostbreak is Helen O’Sullivan of the same address.
Diarmuid O’Sullivan is also joint owner along with Jonathan Balfour of Enniskillen of Kilcock Hospitality which was incorporated on August 1, 2024. That company lists as its areas of interest “hotels and similar accommodation” but there is no record of their being currently involved in any such business in the Kilcock area.
O’Sullivan and Balfour are also involved in Huband Capital which is wholly owned by Trasna Limited. Huband is €1.5 million in the red according to the latest CRO listing.
Trasna Limited has an address in Irvinestown, County Fermanagh and its directors are O’Sullivan and Balfour. Balfour is a director and owner of several other northern companies registered with Companies House. Among them are Elite Electronics which is one of the leading electronics manufacturers in Northern Ireland. So it will be interesting to see what the plans for Kilcock Hospitality are.
Is there also perhaps a responsibility on religious orders such as the Presentation Order to inquire as to what use any buildings or land they sell might be put? The Order has a long and happy association with the town and surely must be concerned as to what their legacy might be when they leave.
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