As Sherry Fitzgerald reports on a deficit of almost 39,000 in student beds – projected to rise steeply as student numbers from overseas continued to increase to more than 44,000 enrolled in HEA registered courses last year – accommodation owners continue in many instances to favour asylum accommodation.
Yesterday an application was registered with Dublin City Council for Inchicore Suites in Inchicore on the south side of Dublin city. The application seeks a declaration from the Dublin City planners “that the use of the aparthotel/short stay accommodation units as an International Protection Accommodation Service centre does not constitute development or a material change of use having regard to the nature of the permitted use, and therefore does not require planning permission.”
Inchicore Suites consists of 21 luxury self-catering apartments and has, until it recently stopped taking bookings, been directed at tourists seeking a base to explore Dublin city. It is in walking distance of key tourist destinations such as the Guinness brewery and is close to the LUAS line. Permission for change of use from office to tourist accommodation was granted to Canbe Limited in 2018.
There are no plans or any other information attached as yet to the Ambra notification sent to Dublin City Council. So we have no indication of what the proposed change over might involve in terms of capacity, room size and so on, nor on costs. A check of similar accommodation in Dublin suggests that such apartments are let for somewhere in the range of €125 – €150 per night.
The current average payment per night for each person provided with IPAS accommodation supplied through private contractors is €71. If we assume that four persons might share each apartment (and there have been cases where larger numbers have shared such accommodation) the contractor in this case might expect to pull in around twice what Inchicore Suites would earn if it remained as tourist accommodation.
A rough calculation would provide a ballpark estimate of a transfer of €2,176,860 from our pockets to the pockets and purses and manbags of the owners of Inchicore Suites in the course of just one calendar year. Fair play to us. Helping everyone, barring ourselves.
The application for the change of use of Inchicore Suites is from Ambra Properties. It has an address at Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare, and is registered with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) as wholly owned by Aoife Brady. She and John Francis Brady are the two directors of Ambra.
When Ambra Properties was registered in 2022 it was jointly owned by Brendan Garry and Maeve Garry of Birr, County Offaly. In its first annual return for June 2022, Aoife Brady was the sole owner.
Ambra has done well and reported net assets of €3.6 million at the end of 2024. The company reported an operating profit of over €1.1 million but the two Bradys, as directors, were modestly remunerated to the tune of €48,000 between them. That despite shareholders funds being equal to the €3.6 million in net assets. €264,355 was due to “connected parties” Canbe Limited and Sustainable Insulation Products.
The close connection between Ambra Properties and Canbe is also indicated by the fact that on its website, Ambra lists both Inchicore Suites and Garden Lane Backpackers in the Liberties area of Dublin close to St. Patrick’s Cathedral as part of its portfolio. Canbe/Ambra do not specifically seek students but some overseas students do stay at the Garden Lane hostel.
Garden Lane is registered as wholly owned by Canbe Limited. Bookings on the Ambra site are redirected to the Canbe page. Canbe assures prospective customers that “we embrace all cultures” so if their pivot into asylum accommodation is successful the people of Inchicore can expect to be part of this noble project. And indeed to pay for it themselves, stout fellows.
The Bradys appear to be low profile and modest folk who seem to have no other directorships or shareholdings. Not so the Garrys. Canbe Limited and Sustainable Insulation Products that are referred to as the “connected parties” in the Ambra accounts are entirely owned by Eoin Garry who is the son of Brendan and Maeve.
Brendan Garry founded Canbe as the Birr Building Company in 1998 and the Garrys are probably best known for their ownership of the County Arms Hotel in Birr. Last year the Garrys bought Dooly’s Hotel in Birr from Stephen Grant, who was one of the beneficiaries of the purchase by the state of the Citywest Hotel and Conference Centre.
The Grants own 25% of Alva Glen who were the ultimate owners of Citywest. Concern was expressed locally that Dooly’s itself might be changed over to the lucrative asylum accommodation sector but Eoin Garry had informed the local media that this would not happen and that Canbe were committed to retaining the existing staff and the hotel as the providers of hospitality.
It would seem, however, that whatever qualms Canbe might have had about installing an IPAS centre in one of their properties in their own home town, they have had no difficulty in deciding that State/taxpayer cheques are a better and safer source of Spondulicks than allowing tourists to crash in their luxury apartments in the Inchicore Suites.
I shall keep an eye on the progress of the application. Permission from Dublin City Council – which will have to be backed by a contract between Ambra/Canbe with the Department of Integration – would be a further indication that the State regards the accommodation of asylum seekers as more important than providing tourist beds, or indeed student accommodation.