A Louth TD has claimed that a company paid more than €10 million by the Government for asylum accommodation “is owned by a man who has been linked by the Criminal Assets Bureau to the Drogheda gang feud.”
“It terrifies me that gangsters named by the Criminal Assets Bureau are securing contracts and profiteering on public money,” the Sinn Féin TD said.
Speaking in the Dail on Tuesday, Louth TD Joanna Byrne told the House that the company, Secure Accommodation Management, had received €10.2 million since it was established in September 2022.
“The Government has paid millions of euro for asylum seeker accommodation to a company which is owned by a man who has been linked by the Criminal Assets Bureau to the Drogheda gang feud,” the TD said.
“Recent media reports suggest that the owner of this company, Secure Accommodation Management, has been paid €10.2 million since it was set up in September 2022. Indeed, the then Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth highlighted its huge profits for 2023. It terrifies me that gangsters named by CAB are securing contracts and profiteering on public money,” she added.
Deputy Byrne also referred to a recent arson attack at an asylum-seeker accommodation centre in Drogheda, saying that “if it had not been for the swift intervention of An Garda Síochána and Drogheda fire services, families and children, including a three-week-old baby, would not have escaped with their lives.”
“Concerns have been raised about safety standards in this building and indeed about the private operators,” she said.
Government response
Minister of State Jack Chambers said he was not aware “of the particular circumstances in which the contract for this property was entered into.”
He added that he would ask the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, and his Department to respond to the Deputy’s concerns.
“Because of the changes in the wider migration pattern into our country across the last number of years, there has been a response to try and find accommodation for people under particular criteria who have come here. I will ask the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, and the Department of justice to respond to the Deputy’s particular concerns,” he said.
Background
The Sunday World earlier this year reported that a director of Secure Accommodation Management had been named in a Criminal Assets Bureau affidavit filed in the High Court in 2022 during proceedings relating to the Drogheda feud.
The same reports recorded that the individual denied any involvement in criminality, saying he had never been questioned or charged, that any mention of him in CAB material was untested, and that he was no longer serving as a Director of Secure Accommodation Management.
Call for oversight
Deputy Byrne urged the Government to examine how asylum-accommodation contracts are awarded and to ensure proper oversight of the system
“The Government has paid millions of euro for asylum-seeker accommodation to a company which is owned by a man who has been linked by the Criminal Assets Bureau to the Drogheda gang feud,” she said. “What is the Minister going to do about it?”