As readers will know, your average IPAS contractor is a furtive creature. The Lesser Spotted Asylum Entrepreneur prefers the shady groves of the Isle of Man or the tropical heat of the Caribbean to exposure to the inquisitive creatures who come snooping around their nests.
Not so the lads who own Knockmitten House Services and Mashup Property Limited who yesterday rocked up to the Commercial Court in a case they have brought against the State for allegedly letting them down on a contract to provide accommodation to IPAS. The contract, the plaintiffs claim, would have been worth €4.4 million.
The rate struck was to take in 66 applicants at €87.50 per night. Those familiar with the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General will know it would be a bit of a bargain given that the Department of Integration has paid more than twice that rate to some others who have landed a plum contract. Often, as we have seen, without any proper planning exemptions, fire certification or insurance.
So fair play to Knockmitten director Gina Galligan for having it all out in Court in her claim that the contract which they had believed to have been accepted fell victim to the transfer of responsibility for IPAS from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) to Justice in May this year.
Knockmitten claim that they were jilted by the new Minister, Jim O’Callaghan, after a planned inspection was cancelled and they were told that the pricing, location and other specifications were now unsuitable. Knockmitten and Mashup are demanding around €3 million in compensation. All on your tab, by the way.
Mashup Property had applied for an exemption for change of use from industrial to accommodation for applicants for International Protection last October 3. That was quickly processed and the exemption was granted by South Dublin County Council on November 21, 2024.
Mashup is described as the owner on the application for the three-story premises which had been previously used by H&K International to manufacture kitchen equipment. It was put up for sale in 2020 with a guide price of €650,000.
Knockmitten House was sold at auction in November 2020 for €916,000 after attracting 25 bids. The annual rental income then was a modest €65,000, so it is not difficult to see the attraction it had if bought at that price and then transferred to use for asylum accommodation.
Knockmitten House once had a charge on it with Anglo Irish Bank, and was under the control of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) between 2010 and 2016. It was bought by a company called Promontoria (Arrow) that year, and there is no record of any subsequent sale on the property folio. Promontoria are based in the Netherlands and appear to have no connection to the current owners.
So, who are the chaps who were behind the bid to have what was formerly a thriving hub of industrial activity, and a place of employment, turned over to the highly lucrative but entirely unproductive IPAS sector?
Knockmitten House Services has an address at the site. Andrew Byrne and Gina Galligan are the directors and Byrne is the sole owner. It was only registered on October 13, 2024, ten days after Mashup Property had applied for the exemption.
Mashup is part of the Mashup Group which has an address at the Monavalley Business Park in Tralee. Its back story is interesting as an example of how lads who would be considered go- getting Gen Z movers and shakers spotted the m chance in asylum accommodation.
Andy Byrne – who was once a vice President at Merrill Lynch, and had previously worked for the Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan – apparently lost everything in the 2008 “Global Financial Crisis” but went “back to basics in 2009: creating value without any starting capital.” He set up Mashup which now has assets of around €31 million. Among his acquisitions was Schoolbooks.ie which is the major retailer of schoolbooks in the state.
Mashup is also involved in really cool stuff like a solar farm, a battery farm and turning waste plastic into hydrogen. These are based in the Mashup Venture Park in Longford. Apparently the “common elements to these entrepreneurial projects are that they require talent and capital (and very often huge effort) to convert them from potential opportunities into actual tangible value.”
None of which apply to IPAS centres. They do not require any effort other than to own a building or land and are of absolutely no value to anyone, least of all the communities in which they are located without their by or leave.
They do require people with money to want to make more and risk free money through the centres and Andy and the brother Jamie were fortunate enough to bump into such people – as you might if you had worked with Merrill Lynch with assets of more than $600 billion. Jamie previously worked for an anonymous “Private Family Group” helping them to manage their investment portfolio.
Hopefully, as after the global crash which forced the Byrne boys onto the streets, they will pick themselves up after being knocked back for the IPAS centre. Perhaps it is just the ticket for them to recover their derring do and turn their backs on the socialistic channelling of money from the taxpayer to companies with State accommodation contracts. That is only for millionaire welfare kings and queens.