The National Building Control Management Section (part of the Department of Housing and Local Government) published a notice in April which details the planned transformation of the Coolock site at the centre of yesterday’s protests over to accommodation for “International Protection Guests”.
The notice was submitted to Dublin City Council on April 29 and work was to commence at the site to erect the proposed “hostel accommodation” on May 6.
One wonders if the postponement of that commencement had anything to do with the fact that the local and European elections were due to be held on June 7.
The owner is given as Paul Collins and the owner company listed as Townbe Unlimited which has an address at Broadmeadow Hall, Swords.
As we will see, Townbe has benefited handsomely from the provision of accommodation and services for migrants claiming asylum.
Collins is listed as director of Townbe Unlimited with Tanya Hennigan. Townbe Unlimited is 100% owned by Townbe Holdings Unlimited.
Townbe Holdings Unlimited was incorporated in 2019. It is jointly owned by Brightpearl Unlimited and Premierbrook Unlimited, each with a 40% shareholding, and by Tanya Hennigan who has a 20% share. When an IPAS inspection was conducted at the Temple Hotel at Horseleap, Westmeath, on December 22, 2020 Hennigan was listed as proprietor and manager and Collins was notified of the results of the inspection, which had found just minor defects.
Brightpearl is 98.04% owned by Melanie McGarry and Peter McGarry with minor equal shares held by Arbortree and Havalina. According to company records, the McGarrys appear to be resident in Switzerland, happily away from the rough and tumble of making a few bob taking in guests from overseas at a disused paint factory in Coolock.
Melanie McGarry and Paul Collins were listed as the directors of a company called Combin which bought the Abbeyfield Hotel and an estate of 52 houses in Ballaghaderreen in 2015. The Abbeyfield Hotel was at the centre of controversy later when the hotel was used to accommodate asylum seekers. Combin was registered in Bermuda care of another company called Remcoll. Remcoll has an Irish address and is owned by Paul Collins and Melanie McGarry. Its activities are the “management activities of holding companies.” The company has also been involved in nursing homes including one at Carnew, County Wicklow.
That is one of the reasons why tracing the ultimate beneficiaries of the asylum business is so difficult.
Premierbrook, the other main owner of Townbe along with the McGarrys, is owned by Christopher Collins and Niall Collins and one of the directors is Paul Collins. All of the Collins have an address at Bandon, County Cork.
Those then are the owners of Townbe, but how have Townbe themselves done in the cutting edge dynamic sector that is the turning of paint factories, hotels, nursing homes and what not into guest houses for lads fleeing north London, north Paris and further afield?
Well, as followers of the fortunes of the Gilded Youth of the refugee accommodation sector will know, the answer to that is not too badly at all. Since the beginning of 2021, and as we have seen the involvement of the principals concerned predates 2021, Townbe Unlimited has drawn down more than €38 million from the taxpayer for providing asylum services.
Like many others turning a bob from this hugely profitable sector the owners of Townbe can look upon their work from afar. Not unlike the Regency beaux who could season all year around in London while the peasants down the bog picked up their tabs.
Some might say that this recycling of previously productive locations into asylum centres is just entrepreneurial capitalism – it is not. That was what Crown Paints used to do. Crown Paints employed people, it made stuff people wanted, and then it sold that stuff to the public.
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