Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has been accused of “wasting” one million euro on a contract for asylum seeker beds at the D Hotel in Drogheda.
Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd said it was “disgraceful” that O’Gorman’s department had signed a contract for 500 beds at Drogheda’s biggest hotel saying that proper fire certification was obtained.
Speaking in the Dáil O’Dowd said, “O’Gorman, signed a contract for 500 beds at the D Hotel without consulting anyone, blindsiding everyone.”
He continued, “However, it emerged from a letter he sent to me yesterday that the contract was signed without there being an appropriate fire certification in place, meaning that the maximum number of people who can stay in the hotel is 250.”
O’Dowd said that in the 51 days since the contract had been signed “the taxpayer has been exposed to a loss of almost €1 million.”
“This is disgraceful” he said, adding that “due diligence” was “not done” in respect of the contract.
He criticised the actions of the Department of Integration saying there was “no consultation” done.
“There is no cooling-off period in the contract.” he said adding that the people of Drogheda “are angry at being blindsided, as are all of the public representatives.”
O’Dowd demanded that the situation be addressed “urgently” saying he has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General to request that the contract be examined to determine “whether there is a way for us to recover the €1 million that has been wasted by the Minister.”
The D Hotel is the largest hotel in Drogheda with locals expressing concern and frustration that it will no longer be available to host visitors to the area.
As Gript previously reported, local festival organisers said that the decision to close the hotel’s doors to the public – for the next two years – in order to house hundreds of migrants claiming asylum from the 5th March, has left event and festival management asking the questions: “Where do I accommodate my acts? Where do the tourists go?”
A suggestion that the hotel be used in a ‘mixed use’ capacity meaning that a certain number of beds and communal areas would still be accessible to the public was ruled out by Roderic O’Gorman who said that this would amount to a “significant” child safe-guarding issue.
“By operating a hotel as dual purpose IPAS residents would be exposed to more risk or potential harm due to the constant throughput of commercial customers arriving in the hotel and it would be substantially more difficult for the mandated person to manage child protection,” his department said.
Gript’s Matt Treacy previously published a report on the owners of the D Hotel outlining the financial incentives involved in leasing the property out to the International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS.
He wrote, “It has been estimated that the Drogheda hotel will “rake in” some €13 million in just one year of providing for those claiming asylum. It’s another example of how lucrative this type of accommodation provision has become, and, as we will see, how it has attracted overseas capital and investment.
The hotel, which was a key location for visitors to the Fleadh Ceoil that was hosted in Drogheda in 2019, was bought by Gleann Hospitality, which is owned by the Martello Group, in 2017. They sold it for a reported €11 million to Fairkeep in March 2023.”
You can read the full report here.