On July 24, an application was registered with Dublin City Council for the conversion of an existing office and storage facility to use as “temporary accommodation for international protection applicants.”
The address of the facility is 3C Citylink Business Park which is located off the Naas Road in Bluebell and is currently listed as a business premises.
The property is owned by a John Fahy with an address in Lucan, and he is the registered owner, but he is not connected to the business that is currently there.
Fahy is the owner of Pangea Financial Services Limited and was a director of Pangea Digital Ireland which was placed into liquidation in November 2024. The main shareholder in that company was Keyhouse Holdings which is owned by a UK company, Dye and Durham, a business and management consultancy.
There are no accompanying documents available to the public, but the application states that “The works will be carried out by the same company and to exactly the same specification as the unit at Block A Citylink.”
It so happens that I have written about that unit and the company involved before. That company is called Lonadale – not Londale as it has been misspelt on occasion. They have obviously spotted the opportunity that exists in acquiring large buildings and transforming them into asylum accommodation centres.
This is their second application for a site in Citylink and they were granted an exemption for Block A on March 7 this year. They also applied for an exemption for Canal House, the former SIPTU college on the South Circular Road, for change of use to residential on May 6, but this was initially refused.
There was no reference in that application to accommodation for applicants for International Protection. but they made another bid for the same site – this time under Class 20F – on June 5. A decision was made by the City Council that this was an exempted development on July 17.
The planner had requested clarification and Lonadale supplied proof that the exemption for the use of the building had the approval of the Department of Integration (now under the umbrella of the Department of Justice.)
It appears rather odd to me that the proposal for residential accommodation was refused on the grounds that it “would not comply with the relevant provisions of Article 10(6) of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended in relation to number of units proposed and minimum floor area requirements and minimum storage space requirements of the ‘Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments – Guidelines for Planning Authorities’.”
Yet it seems perfectly acceptable once it has State approval to be used as an accommodation centre.
As the planner’s report states, Lonadale had actually said in its covering letter that it was “seeking a section 5 declaration for the provision of temporary accommodation for international protection applicants” but that “this is not the question asked on the application form.”
Who are these guys in Lonadale anyway? The last document registered with the CRO on April 28 was to notify a change of address. The new address is at Hartstonge Street, Limerick, and the notification was made by David Kennedy with an address at the Columbia Group in St. Helier, Jersey.
Lonadale was registered in 2007 and was, for a time, owned by Impala Holdings with an address in Guernsey. Lonadale is now registered as owned by Derk Estates but they have been dissolved since November 2024 and are registered as owned by Lonadale, who in turn are owned by Derk Estates.
Lonadale is recorded by the CRO as being in the red for more than €6 million. David Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy and David Kennedy Senior are all associated with various companies connected to Lonadale and all are happily away from the hustle and bustle of Irish diversity in the Channel Islands.
Perhaps some of the lads who end up in one of their growing portfolio of asylum centres might sail past in their dinghies on their way to England, which is often just another stop on their journey to the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory that is Ireland.
The Colombia Group, who until April shared an address in Jersey with Lonadale, is 70% owned by Impala Holdings; 10% by Formation Homes which has the same address as Lonadale in Limerick and is owned by Market Equities – another overseas entity with no Irish registration; and 20% by the Bank of Scotland.
There is also a connection with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s old buddy, Joe Burke, who is a director of two companies connected to the Kennedys and Columbia. Burke was one of the stars of the Mahon Tribunal. The UK Phoenix Life Holdings, which had a revenue of £5 billion in 2023, iis the beneficial owner of much of the Colombia portfolio.
One of the directors of Bank of Scotland Ireland – who have a 20% stake in Colombia – is Maurice Pratt who older readers will recall as one of the luminaries of the Irish retail food sector when he was with Quinnsworth. He was also at one time a director of Bulmers, Tesco. Brivtic, and Tayto Crisps. He is a former President of the bosses union IBEC.
One of the other strings to the bow of all of these foreign companies is Formation Homes Ireland. The directors are the three Kennedys and it is registered as owned by a UK registered company called Market Equities which is owned by one Adnan Ahmad Khan, although the Kennedys are registered as the beneficial owners of Formation Group PLC.
The Kennedys, through Formation Homes, have made the solemn commitment to “Build for a Better Ireland.” I shall leave you to judge whether their growing involvement in the asylum accommodation caper is part of that.
Can I also say, if I am permitted, that perhaps it is time that the Irish State lives up to its commitment – as pledged by former Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – to look after “people who get up in the morning” and are productive members of society.
Not those offshore entities and ‘entrepreneurs’ who pursue the vast profits to be made not only at the expense of the taxpayer but often to the detriment of legitimate Irish companies who employ people and make a contribution to our communities.