Last Thursday, Tipperary County Council issued an enforcement notice which confirms that the IPAS accommodation at Dundrum House Hotel shall finally be closed by January 27, 2027.
That brings to an end an ongoing battle that began with protests by the local community in the village and later led to prolonged court proceedings regarding the ownership of the hotel and other matters.
The notice informs all of the parties involved, including the liquidators, that the local authority has found that works on the grounds of the hotel, as well as the “the use of the Holm Oaks, The Square Block, The Coach House and the Old Wing / C Block as accommodation for International Protection Applicants resulting in a material change of use of the former hotel” have been deemed to be “unauthorised development.”
Failure to comply with the notice may lead to criminal prosecution under Section 157 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) with potential penalties of a fine not exceeding €12,700,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.
While local people have expressed their welcome for the decision they also note that Tipperary County Council was slow to act and that the community not only received little support when it first made its objections known but also faced a sustained attack across the mainstream media, NGOs, and establishment politicians.
In July, the High Court decided that Brogan Capital Ventures (of which Leo was now the sole director) was the beneficial owner of Dundrum House as Jeffrey Leo – whose trading ban in the United States was first reported by me – was deemed to be the beneficial owner of an obscure company called Utmasta.
That decision allows the liquidators, Interpath Advisory, access to what funds are due to Leo, who the Senior Counsel for the Wennings, Kelley Smith, had claimed in the High Court had been engaged in an elaborate network of company formations and operations in order to facilitate Leo’s “taking ownership of the entire group.”
All of the principals in the case have been notified of the enforcement notice. One name that is missing is David L’Estrange who came in for quite a few mentions during the court hearings.
He was described in court as a provider of substantial loans to Leo and a bit of a “maverick” by Kelly Smith.
L’Estrange, who has a wide range of business interests, had apparently acted as an attempted mediator between his chum Jeff and the Wennings.
There is also an interesting link to the McDermott family who have featured in these pages in relation to their involvement in the unauthorised development at Brittas. In 2025 they bought the Pillo Hotel in Ashbourne from a company called Inktech.
That company had been owned by Jeffrey Leo and the Wennings, through Steelworks Investments, until its shares were transferred to the McDermotts company, Polarside. The Pillo Hotel is the address for Brogan Capital Ventures that is on the Tipperary County Council enforcement notice.
Also named on the notice is Harry Cregan who is a director of the mysterious Utmasta.
According to his LinkedIn page he is a chartered accountant and worked for KPMG for seven years and is currently on the advisory board of an Indian company involved in property and facility management.
There is also Ana Maria Fernandez Sanchez over in Majorca. She is still listed as a 50% share holder and the full owner of Skeaghclon Limited and Sestwar.
Also notified was Shaycase Limited and its three directors Garrett Cooke, Seamus McHale, and John McGrattan. Shaycase owns Hibernian Suites, which I mentioned previously as having published a sort of prospectus on how to get into and make a few bob from the asylum caper.
A company called Eastique is registered as the full owner of Shaycase.
Since I gave them a free boost two years back the lads’ prospectus appears, sadly, no longer to be available online. However, they explained the recommended Modus Operandi for chaps interested succinctly:
Perhaps the halcyon days of getting in and making a few bob have passed. Which is down to due diligence not by the state, or of the political opposition, but people like ourselves and local communities and the very occasional political representative who shone a light on all of it and exposed what was going on.
And so, while the court proceedings and the colourful involvement of Leo and others make for interesting reading that would not be out of place in a financial fiction novel, we must not lose sight of one central fact.
That being that the lucrative prize was the public money that all of the characters, who at one time or another and through various roles and guises had a piece of Dundrum House through Brogan Capital Ventures and Utmasta, trousered – more than €13 million in three years between 2022 and 2025.
The only ones who emerge with any real credit are those members of the local community of Dundrum who opposed the operation of what we now know was an asylum centre improperly planted in the middle of a small quiet Tipperary village.