In the Register of Interests of TDs that was published this week, three of the five sitting TDs for Kerry have declared that they have contracts with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for the provision of accommodation to refugees.
They are Fianna Fáil TD Michael Cahill, Sinn Fein’s Pa Daly, and Independent Michael Healy-Rae.
Cahill’s wife Brenda is registered as the full owner of the Beighwatch Guesthouse in Glenbeigh. The company was registered in June 2023 and appears only to have begun to receive payments for the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees in 2024. The payments for the last quarter of the year have not yet been released but the Cahills received €86,445 in the three months between July and September.
The property which Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly has under contract with the Department is a house in Dublin which is among several properties he owns. The reference to the contract is to “Accom. recognition payment” which is the €800 monthly payment to people who provide accommodation for Ukrainians under Temporary Protection.
It emerged in late 2023 that Deputy Daly hadn’t initially declared his ownership of the house in Dublin for which address he receives payment from the state to allow a Ukrainian refugee to stay there.
Michael Healy-Rae lists a contract with the Department through Roughty Properties Limited. That is for the provision of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. Healy-Rae is registered as the sole owner of that company which was established in May 2022.
That company owns the Rosemount guesthouse in Tralee which had earned Healy-Rae more than one million Euros in payments to the end of September 2024.
Last month, Michael was giving out about the possibility that Ukrainian refugees staying in the Golf Hotel, Ballybunion, might be moved and that they would be replaced by non-Ukrainians who were seeking International Protection. Maybe it’s a bit like headage payments or road contracts. You need to watch the margins.
No members of the Seanad declared themselves to have any asylum accommodation contracts.