As the Irish state finally seems to be making the calculations that their European besties like France and others have made some time ago regarding their capacity to take in refugees, it is worth perhaps looking at some of the people who are benefitting from it all.
Last week, we heard the headline figures of €364.6 million paid out in three months to the providers of accommodation in Ireland for Ukrainians under Temporary Protection. Add to that another €139.4 million for the cost of people claiming to be asylum seekers from other countries.
The total for this provision to the six months ended in June was €805.6 million with estimates that even if the rate of intake continues at the same level – and the numbers appear to be increasing – then the total cost for the year will be close to €1.7 billion.
As a comparison, the Government headlined the fact that they were devoting €2.3 billion to assist Irish households struggling with “cost of living” pressures. And no, the two are not unrelated.
The classic question posed historically regarding matters of state and such like is Cui Bono – who benefits.? The great Roman writer Cicero attributed it to the jurist Lucius Cassius who apparently was wont to ask: “Cui bono fuisset? – To whom might it be good?”
Well, if you want to know who benefits from the refugee crisis, a good place to start is the lists of payments to those who supply accommodation.
Of course, there are others including the NGOs – some of whom like the troubled McVerry Trust are also getting cheques for providing rooms – but the real winners are the people who own the hotels and guesthouses who – at the behest of a Government policy that makes it financially more attractive to turn away tourists in favour of refugees – have been diverted away from their original purpose and become an industry facilitating mass immigration.
Some of the big hitters are not even Irish. The accounts for the last quarter show that the same people have consistently been drawing the most money.
Top of the pile is the Cape Wrath group, which is Tetrarch, and which has trousered over €60 million from since 2022. This group owns City West, where we previously reported that there were violent incidents and concerns expressed regarding the safety of women and children.
Another big winner is Guestford the owners of the nearby Red Cow which has received more than €37 million from the Irish state for asylum accommodation.
Then there is Tifco which also owns the Travelodge group and also Pumpkin Spice, which has received millions in the last quarter alone from the State. .
Who are these boys?
Well, let me tell you. The owners of Tifco and the people who ultimately cash the cheques which YOU write are Apollo Global Management.
Leon Black
Last year these guys were managing over $540 billion in assets. That’s more than Ireland’s entire GNP for 2022.
One of its founders is a chap called Leon Black. He stepped down as chairperson of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2021 when it became known that he had employed Jeffrey Epstein for “professional services” for six years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor in 2008.
Black said he had paid Epstein “millions of dollars annually for that work”. He is currently being accused of rape in a lawsuit brought by a woman who says he raped her when she was a 16 year-old at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, which he strongly denies.
Another American company to hugely benefit from all of this is Aramark which owns Campbell Catering. Doesn’t it sound nice? Maybe conjures up a picture of various Campbells getting up at the crack of dawn and throwing together Jumbo Breakfast Rolls or perhaps a tuna salad for the more health conscious.
Ah no. Campbells, however it may have begun, is owned by a company that regularly reports annual revenues of more than $10 billion. They have also been in the news over accusations of labour law violations.
Aramark also has the contract to look after prisons in the US, and was questioned after maggots were found in small cracks around a food service line.
Journalist Chris Hedges described the company as “serving skimpy or disgusting meals” and turning “mass incarceration and misery into a lucrative business”.
In Ireland, Aramark “has been awarded a Irish government contract to provide meals at hubs for Ukrainian refugees, and also provides catering services to three direct-provision centres for asylum seekers in Athlone, Clare and Cork”, Belfast Live reports.
One of the top recipients of Aramark’s political donations was the ultra Woke if slovenly John Fetterman by the way. They mostly throw a few bob the Democrats way and have a contract with the Democrat one-party state in Chicago to provide “janitorial services.”
That contract made headlines, however when “reports of filthy conditions inside Chicago Public Schools” led the then Chicago mayor to tell Aramark to “clean out the schools or they can clean out their desks and get out.”