In the Commercial Court yesterday, Judge Mark Sanfey struck out a case brought by a company which had sued the Department of Justice over what it claimed had been substantial losses incurred when a premises it owned was removed from a list of planned IPAS asylum accommodation centres.
The judgement follows mediation in which an agreement was reached in which costs will be awarded on an enhanced basis against the plaintiffs, Palmerstown Temporary Accommodation.
Palmerstown Temporary Accommodation claimed to have spent €17 million preparing a former warehouse in the Cherry Orchard Industrial Estate in southwest Dublin to accommodate 456 applicants for International Protection.
The only planning permission granted for change of use from warehouse was approved by South Dublin County Council in July 2023. That was for the demolition of the existing buildings and the development of 127 apartments. That was appealed to An Bord Pleanála which upheld the approval in November 2023.
At the time that permission was granted, the premises was owned, until September 2024, by Goldstein Property ICAV which readers may recall is associated with Quanta Capital, a company which is owned by Mel Sutcliffe.
They have made millions from asylum accommodation including at the site at Kippure Lodge in Wicklow which was refused a retention order by Wicklow County Council and is currently the subject of ongoing court proceedings.
The application for permission to build the apartments had been registered by AAI Palmerstown Limited. That company has an address in Cork and is owned by Thomas De Witte who has an address in Belgium.
When the apartment development did not go ahead, the site was bought by Tailored Projects Limited in 2024 for a reported €3.5 million. Although the property folio dates their full ownership from September 2024, they had secured a contract from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (which was then responsible for IPAS) in July 2024.
That contract was cancelled by the Department of Justice when the Department of Integration and IPAS came under its umbrella in May 2025. It was this which led to the case being taken by the owners of Palmerstown Temporary Accommodation.
Had it gotten the go ahead as an IPAS centre the new owners would have recouped the purchase price and made a potential profit in the region of €10 million in the first 12 months of operation.
Tailored Projects Limited which is the registered owner of the site in Palmerstown has an address in Tralee. According to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) it has an unsatisfied judgement against it in favour of South Dublin County Council of €15,260.
The company is owned by PDSD Holdings which has 49.75% of the shares and Taylor Trust Consortium which has 50.25%. Palmerstown Temporary Accommodation is wholly owned by PDSD Holdings.
PDSD, named one assumes for directors Peter Dunlea and Sandra Dunlea, has interests in many other companies and has an interesting ownership structure. Peter Dunlea holds 100 shares with the remainder in the hands of the Holly Family Trust, Spruce Family Trust, Scots Pine Family Trust, Yew Family Trust and the Arbutus Family Trust. You will have noted the arboreal theme. All of these are registered as owned by Peter Dunlea.
There is a charge on the premises with Taylor Trust Consortium which is main shareholder in Tailored Projects. That company has an address in Dublin and is owned by a Douglas Taylor who is away sunning himself in Faro, Portugal but also has an address in County Meath. He is involved in various property companies here which also evince an interest in data processing as well as “investigation and security.”
Dunlea has another pending appearance in the Dublin courts in May when the High Court is due to hear a case related to the Lismore Hotel in Waterford which is owned by another Dunlea company called Lore Prop.
Lore Prop trousered another €1,766,583 in IPAS payments for the last three months of 2025 – bringing its overall take from the taxpayer to almost €12 million.
That is despite the fact that Lismore man, Pat Gibney, successfully contested the use since February 2023 of the Lismore Hotel as an IPAS centre. It had been given approval under a claim for exemption by Waterford City and County Council – but only on May 25, 2023 three months AFTER the hotel began to accommodate applicants for International Protection.
Pat Gibney lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála (now An Coimisúin Pleanála) on June 19, 2023.
Gibney’s appeal was upheld in January 2025 when An Coimisúin Pleanála ruled that there could be no exemption under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2001 as the works had included those which had no planning permission as required for the change of use of a Protected Structure.
What ought to have followed this was the issuance of an enforcement order from Waterford City and County Council. That has not happened and the hotel is estimated to currently accommodate around 120 people according to local people I have been in contact with.
The failure of Waterford City and County Council to issue an enforcement order has allowed the continued use of the Lismore Hotel as an IPAS centre and next month’s High Court hearing is on foot of Lore Prop’s being allowed an appeal by An Coimisúin Pleanalá for a deferment.
It will be interesting to see what the High Court might decide on whether the clear absence of proper planning authorisation for the use of Lismore Hotel can be set aside. Or will Peter Dunlea’s lucrative run of good luck encounter another blow as it did yesterday in the Commercial Court?