Three separate applications to extend exemptions for asylum accommodation were registered last Saturday, August 22, by two companies owned by members of the McEnaney family from Monaghan.
An application has been registered for change of use of The Avenue public house on Parnell Square “to provide temporary use by or on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to accommodate persons seeking international protection.”
Another application is for a change of use from residential apartments to asylum accommodation at 6 Belvedere Place. Both of those applications were registered by Longfield Ventures. 6 Belvedere Place is listed as owned since 2020 by Davy Property Holdings. It is registered as the Belvedere Guesthouse.
The notice submitted by Longfield Ventures for The Avenue requests that Dublin City Council clarify whether the proposal for the change over of the basement, ground floor and two stories above constitute exempt development.
There is no available property folio for The Avenue which is situated at the top of Parnell Square East, diagonally opposite the landmark Findlater’s Church; almost opposite the entrance to the Garden of Remembrance and barely a stone’s throw from where a child was seriously injured in a stabbing outside Gaelscoil Mhuire in November 2023. The Avenue had been used over the years under various guises as a licensed premises.
Longfield Ventures is part of the McEnaney asylum and emergency accommodation conglomerate. It is based at Longfield outside Carrickmacross and its two directors are Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney’s son John and his nephew Gary. They are also the joint owners of the company.
And to put the paper hat on it, didn’t the boys throw in another application for an IPAS exemption on the very same day, last Saturday. Except not under the Longfield brand but in the name of Fernboro, another part of the Banty adjacent Empire of Caring and also owned by Banty’s son and nephew.
The Fernboro application is for 55 Parnell Square West. Which has been the address for the Migrant Rights Centre and the Irish Network Against Racism. Interestingly it is also listed as being in the ownership of Davy Property Holdings since March 2020. The last record of a sale according to the Property Price Register is from 2018.
That company is part of the vast Davy’s group which, at the end of 2023, reported net assets of €12.56 billion. I contacted them to inquire if that property, and another for which an exemption has been sought, are still in the ownership of the company. There was no response to my query so as far as we are aware Davy’s still owns the two properties they bought in 2020. They may not. I do not know.
The application for 55 Parnell Square West also asks whether an exemption applies to accommodation “currently in use as student accommodation … to provide temporary accommodation by or on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to persons seeking international protection.”
One of the curious aspects of the applications is that they all refer to premises which have been in use as asylum accommodation for a number of years. Roderick O’Gorman, the former Minister with responsibility for Integration, listed all three as among guesthouses and B&Bs that were in use for IPAS accommodation in January 2023.
Given that all of the properties referred to in the three McEnaney applications have already been in use as asylum accommodation, what reason have they to be looking for assurances from Dublin City Council that the exemptions still apply? There is no documentation currently attached to any of the applications.
The McEnaney cubs have emulated the Da, Banty, and their uncles and aunts and other in laws in making a right go of the asylum accommodation industry. To the end of March this year, Longfield Ventures had received public funding through accommodation payments of €12.3 million. Fernboro had clocked in with a more modest €2.8 million.
By the end of 2024 companies directly connected to Banty himself had taken in over €140 million. His main flagship is Brimwood which as an unlimited entity does not have to file financial statements. He also owns Chillpal in which his daughters Laura and Sarah are directors.
Oakgate and JMA are owned by Banty’s sister Margaret McCarville; his son Gavin established Corduff JG Enterprise which has received over €10 million in accommodation payments; another nephew Conor owns Rosscorp and another company Rossblue along with Christopher McEnaney; Banty’s sister-in-law Mary owns Copperwhistle; Foxstrand is owned by two other nephews Dylan and Kian; then there is Highgrove Property in which son John and Gary are also involved as well as in Brother Beghin, and Blueburn owned by Christopher McEnaney.
Quite impressive.