HIQA, the Health Information and Quality Authority, last Friday published its latest reports on inspections carried out on IPAS centres in the state. On January 22 and 23 this year they visited the Atlantic Lodge in Kenmare, County Kerry.
That centre has been there since 2018 and very rarely attracts public comment. There have been occasional incidents involving residents such as when Laytoya Carlo, who was living in the accommodation centre at Atlantic Lodge, appeared in court in December 2023 after being charged with public intoxication.
According to the HIQA report the accommodation centre consists of one main building on the premises, with three portakabins (used for storage) to the rear. The main building contained 26 bedrooms and could accommodate up to 106 residents. The bedrooms in the centre varied in size and were used to provide accommodation for families and single adults. At the time of inspection, 69 people were accommodated in Atlantic Lodge.
Such reports do not contain individual details but due to several factors the Atlantic Lodge was adjudged to be “not compliant” with “national policies and standards to protect residents living in the accommodation centre in a manner that promotes their welfare and respects their dignity.”
It was also deemed to be not compliant with the requirement that “The service provider manages and reviews adverse events and incidents in a timely manner and outcomes inform practice at all levels.” This related to one specific safeguarding incident that is not reported in detail.
The centre was found to be only “partially compliant” when it came to providing “effective leadership” and management and in seven other areas including risk assessment. On balance they were found to be substantially or fully compliant with 20 standards across ten other areas. Where there are less than satisfactory judgements, the provider undertakes to engage in a three year Quality Improvement Strategy.
The Atlantic Lodge has been owned since 1999 by Kenmare Hostel and Caravan Park Limited. That company is owned by Paul Redmond who has an address in Carlow. It describes its activities even still as “youth hostels and mountain refuges.” It would seem that a different sort of refuge and visitor has proven to be more attractive.
Redmond was a relatively early entrant into the sector having secured a contract in September 2018. He became a director and owner of the company a few months before it was decided to move away from tourist-oriented accommodation. The other shareholder in 2019 was Daxford Investments.
There were just 35 centres back in those days accommodating just under 6,000 people. Happily, for the asylum entrepreneurs, the whole thing has vastly expanded and there are now more than five times as many asylum seekers and an even greater multiple in annual checks from the taxpayer which earn hundreds of millions for the contractors, owners and financial backers.
The contractor which manages Atlantic Lodge is Cromey Limited. That company was registered in October 2020 by sole shareholder Thomas Duggan of Millstreet, County Cork.
Cromey merged with another Duggan entity, Subalpine, in December 2024. In 2021, it merged with the Millstreet Equestrian Centre.
Duggan was also involved with Birchwood, another trend setter in the world of IPAS and which was passed on to Alan Hyde of D&A Pizzas, another of the big hitters. Birchwood got its name from Birchwood Waterford city which was turned into a centre. It is managed by the Jesuit Refugee Services.
Duggan was also involved in Linden House, Killarney; Davis Street in Mallow; the Vee Valley Hotel in County Tipperary; the Park Palace in Killarney and the Island View House in Cork. Between them those centres which were early innovators coined more than €10 million.
Followers of the asylum accommodation celebrities will know of course that Millstreet has been one of the huge winners from the sector. Despite its being registered as “dissolved post merger” since May 2021, its ghost managed to draw down a spectral €1.2 million in the first three months of 2025. Cromey appears nowhere on the lists of payments for accommodation.
The various entities connected to Duggan through Millstreet – including Cromey which has the Atlantic Lodge – have drawn down an estimated €150 million since 2000 when it had become one of the first and largest of the asylum accommodation providers. The last registered owner of Millstreet was Arbella Unlimited.
The main ‘Millstreet’ accommodation centre is at Drishane Castle which accommodated 231 International Protection applicants when it was also the subject of a Department of Integration inspection in January this year. Unlike the HIQA reports, the Department reports redact information indicating who the contractor is..
Arabella Unlimited is registered in the Isle of Man. In its latest annual return the only director named is Thomas Duggan who signed a declaration on May 25 this year in compliance with the UK Beneficial Ownership Act 2017 which means that while the British authorities have been informed of the identity of the beneficial owners – and in this case the beneficiaries of millions of Irish taxpayer’s money – the Irish public including yourselves are denied this knowledge.