A meeting is to take place this evening in Oldcastle, County Meath, to protest against what local people believe is a plan to turn the only hotel in the town into an IPAS accommodation centre.
The meeting will take place in the old cinema in Oldcastle and begins at 7.30pm. They are concerned that the Oldcastle House Hotel on Cogan Street is planned to be used as a centre to accommodate applicants for International Accommodation despite two statements from the Department of Integration in March and in June that the hotel was “no longer in consideration” for such a purpose.
The local community was initially made aware of the plan through an application submitted by a company called Transboil to Meath County Council on March 3 this year. That application, signed by Joe Beggan of Monaghan was for “change of use from hotel to IPAS centre.” Beggan is described on the application as the owner of the hotel.
On June 6, Meath County Council declared that it was an exempt development for that purpose. The Department had already issued a statement in March claiming that the hotel was “no longer in consideration” and another was issued in an email to Sinn Féin TD Johnny Guirke ten days after the Council granted the exemption.
Yesterday, Guirke again asked Minister Jim O’Callaghan if there are plans to use the Oldcastle Hotel as an IPAS centre, given that “The people who own this hotel have IPAs centres all over the country.” The Minister claimed that he does not have such plans.
In March, the Council had requested Beggan to submit evidence from IPAS “that the proposed development will be used as temporary accommodation for ‘displaced persons’ or ‘persons seeking international protection.’
Beggan stated that he did not have the required proof at that time, but on June 12 the two senior Meath planning executive planners decided to grant the exemption as submitted.
There is no record of Beggan having supplied the proof on the documents that I have seen, but the Council was happy to sign off on the exemption three months later. The site notice at the Oldcastle Hotel referring to the change of use to asylum accommodation remains.
It would seem therefore that the local community has good cause to continue to voice its concerns. The company Transboil, which is named on the application along with Joe Beggan, is a major asylum accommodation contractor. Since 2022 it has received more than €25 million in payments for that purpose.
The Grok response to a question as to what line of business Transboil in is rather droll: “Its primary business activity is plumbing, heat, and air-conditioning installation (SIC 43220), with a small team of three employees.”
According to its company records, Transboil is owned by Bernard O’Reilly and is based in Santry, north Dublin. According to its last financial statement submitted to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) it had net assets of €100. The statement does, however, show remuneration and pension payments of €875,993 to the director(s) – three plumbers who make Forrest Gump sound like a lad who won €20 on a scratch card.
Joe Beggan who acts as the company agent gave his address on the application to Meath County Council as No. 4 Rossmore Factory, Dublin Road, Monaghan. That address is also that of JMBR Developments which is owned by James McCarville who is a nephew of Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney.
His mother Margaret is a sister of Banty and owns Oakgate and JMA Ventures which have drawn down around €20 million in asylum accommodation payments.
There are clearly many questions surrounding Oldcastle House Hotel at which intensive work is currently being carried out. The evidence from the planning documents and the response from the Department of Integration appear to be contradictory.
The fact that the work on site continues, that the site notice remains, that Meath County Council has not withdrawn the exemption granted in June, and the company and agent who made the application would indicate that the concerns of the local community need to be addressed.