One of the recurring features of the transfer of buildings to centres to accommodate Ukrainian refugees and applicants for asylum has been the use of former nursing homes for that purpose.
Gript has reported on several examples of this where companies have apparently made a conscious business decision that state cheques are a more lucrative and reliable source of income than care for the elderly. One example is the former St. Mary’s nursing home in Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Last year we also reported on the concerns that this practice in other parts of the country had given rise to among families, staff and health officials.
One example of a nursing home that closed and quickly re-opened as an accommodation centre for Ukrainian refugees is the Riverbrook nursing home at Castleconnell, County Limerick. It closed in April 2022 with the loss of 31 jobs and the transfer of 22 residents.
It re-opened very soon afterwards to take in Ukrainians who were brought into the building in the early hours of the May Bank holiday Monday.
Since that time, between the second quarter of 2022 and the end of March this year, the company who owns the former nursing home, Rosary Hill House Limited, has drawn down €2,257,520 in payments for the provision of accommodation made through the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).
It would be a fair estimate that there is little chance that had Riverbrook remained open as a nursing home with more than 30 full and part time staff on its books that it would have taken in, never mind retained as profits, such a tidy sum. The published accounts for the company show that it had a profit of €51,964 for the year to November 2020.
The profit for the year to the end of October 2022 – comprising just the first two quarterly accommodation payments of €325,315 – had increased impressively to €314,394, a six fold increase n profits.
One imagines that the reduction of staff costs from the €661,897 reported in 2020 (there is no figure given for 2022) played a considerable part in the huge increase in the profitability of the centre.
The owners of Rosary Hill House are Jane McCarthy-Mulcair and Donogh McCarthy who are the joint owners of Edenboro Limited which holds 100% of the shares in Rosary Hill. Edenboro submitted abridged accounts in March 2023 claiming an exemption under Section 352 of the 2014 Companies Act on the grounds that it is a “micro company.”
McCarthy-Mulcair’s family were once in charge of Roadbridge which was far from being a micro company. Roadbridge was founded by Ms McCarthy-Mulcair’s father Pat Mulcair in 1967. He became one of the wealthiest people in the Irish construction sector and at one time Roadbridge directly employed more than 600 people. Mulcair died in 2014.
Roadbridge had benefited hugely from state contracts over the years. These had included the north runway at Dublin airport, the Moyross social housing scheme in Limerick, the Limerick tunnel, as well as public contracts in the United Kingdom.
It was placed into liquidation in March 2022 following a company statement that it could no longer cope with “insurmountable financial challenges.” Not least of which was a €36 million unpaid loan to Bank of Ireland. It was also reported to owe at least the same amount of money to subcontractors and others.
In April 2003, the High Court also heard that, in April 2003, Dublin Waterworld had breached the terms of its lease on the National Aquatic Centre by assigning beneficial ownership to Pat Mulcair and on the same day signing a contract agreeing to manage the centre for Mulcair.
That deal would have allowed Mulcair to claim up to €34 million in capital tax allowances. A considerable proportion of those allowances was reported to have been lost by Mulcair because of the judgement. The judgment led to the contract reverting to the state in November 2006 and according to Mulcair’s accountant, Tom Caulfield, Mulcair was happy as “He would see that it’s a valuable national asset that’s owned by all of us.” Indeed.
At this point, the valuable national asset that is the generosity of the Irish people is providing these companies and their owners with lucrative commercial opportunities in the multi-billion refugee accommodation sector.
Socialism of a type really when you think on it ….