While browsing through the list of payments from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) – one that is almost exclusively comprised of monies paid to the providers and protectors and suppliers of the vast asylum accommodation sector – I came across something I had not noticed before.
There, in the records for the first quarter of 2024 is a line which notes that the “Council Rates for CWTH – 2024” had been paid by the Department: by yourself and the rest of our fellow citizens in fact.
Astute and regular readers of this page will be familiar with the Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited company which has been a major beneficiary of your generosity as it is the owner of the Citywest Hotel in south county Dublin which has abandoned the tricky business of hospitality for the much more rewarding and profitable enterprise of providing rooms for much lower maintenance asylum seekers. Citywest has received more than €122.7 million in payments from the Department for provision of accommodation for Ukrainians and asylum applicants.
Intrigued by this I contacted the three parties concerned in the transaction; the Department itself, South Dublin County Council to whom the rates are paid, and to Tetrarch the company which is listed as the owner of the hotel. I have received no response to my queries from SDCC or Tetrarch nor to an email sent directly to the hotel.
The Department did, however, respond through its press office. It states that “As the Department is the sole occupier of both Citywest Hotel and Citywest Convention Centre, it was agreed between Cape Wrath and the department that the department be deemed the Occupier of the Hotel and Convention Centre by virtue of the Licence dated the 3rd of June 2022 between the parties for the purpose of payment of council rates.”
“The Department paid the council rates for the 8 months occupancy in 2022, and the full year cost for 2023 and 2024.”
In another email it was stated that “the Department only pays the rates for the Citywest Hotel and the Conference Centre- the areas occupied by DCEDIY, the rest are paid by Cape Wrath.”
The payment of this year’s rates bill of €739,680 is the only one which shows up separately on the list of purchase orders by the Department.
Presumably, then, the payment of Tetrarch’s rates for Citywest for 2022 and 2023 are included among the long list of “Ukraine accommodation and related costs” which are referenced to the rest of their multi million earnings from the state.
An estimate of the rates savings involved must be in the region of €2 million over the years which represents another nice little saving in the overheads that are involved in the hotel moving away from the far more labour intensive, costly and customer focused hospitality sector.
Other businesses including those who are in the hospitality sector and often struggling with costs including local rate charges, must wonder what they might do to attract the same favours from a state that sometimes appears to be deaf to their issues.
In a series of responses to Parliamentary Questions from Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly, Carol Nolan, Minister Roderic O’Gorman stated on October 8 that there were 1,426 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine in residence at the hotel. He said that approximately 4,000 meals are served there each day.
The Minister further stated that a total of 7,702 persons from Ukraine had been registered at the hotel since 2022 and “subsequently checked out.” He could not provide details as to how many of those who have left are still resident in the state or how many are still in receipt of state payments having left Citywest.
He said that “approximately 15% of BOTPs who have left DCEDIY-supported accommodation have stated that they intended to return to Ukraine.”
Since the first Ukrainian refugees arrived at Citywest, which now also provides accommodation to persons claiming International Protection, Citywest has received more than €122.7 million in payments from the Department.
Cape Wrath is owned by Alva Glen Investments whose largest shareholder with 38.87% is Michael McElligott’s Tetrarch. Tetrarch is owned in equal shares by Tamzin Limited, Brayden Limited and Kilgore Investments.
There was a company called Tamzin Ireland owned by McElligott but it was voluntarily struck off in 2019. There is no currently registered company called Brayden. Kilgore Investments is owned by Julia and Damien Gaffney. There are other shareholders in Tetrarch but I shall hold that for another day.
On June 21 this year, Cape Wrath submitted a raft of C6 forms with the Companies Registration Office noting the satisfaction of charges to a creditor, one Moynul Islam. He is a director of CBRE, an American based real estate commercial services and investment firm which was ranked as the largest in the world in 2022 based on its revenue of $30.8 billion.
In its 2023 market outlook for the Irish property market, CBRE noted that “the Irish economy and real estate market has proved remarkably resilient, with some key sectors performing exceptionally well.”
So, pat yourselves on the back now, because these chaps could not do it without you and your tax Euros. You may rest easy in the knowledge that for one thing a multi billion overseas estate agent and financial lender to the owners of Citywest will not be short of a few dollars this Christmas. And you have also paid their rates for them.