Hotel firms were paid tens of millions of euro to accommodate refugees

Almost a dozen companies were paid more than €10 million to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers from other countries last year, with one hotel group being paid more than €80 million from State contracts.

The highest-paid private companies the State relied on to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers included large hotel groups, as well as firms who have been involved in running direct provision centres for many years.

Tifco, the second largest hotel operator in the country, which also owns the Travelodge hotel chain, was paid at least €80 million in deals to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees last year.

The Irish Times analysed logs of more than 3,500 payments made by the Department of Integration last year, to identify the highest-paid providers of accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees.

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The Government has been under major pressure to accommodate more than 60,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled to the Republic since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, as well as 20,000 asylum seekers from other countries.

The surge in the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers have put huge strain on the State’s ability to accommodate those seeking shelter, with hotels and tourist accommodation heavily relied upon to meet the demand.

[ How accommodating refugees has become a lucrative business for hotels ]

Figures show Tifco Ltd, the Irish hotel business owned by US private-equity group Apollo, was paid at least €37 million by the department to lease rooms in its hotels. The department separately paid €25.8 million to accommodate asylum seekers and Ukrainians in Travelodge hotels, which are owned by Tifco.

The group received a further €20.5 million under a contract where it provided its new 393-bed Travelodge hotel on Townsend Street, Dublin city, to the State to exclusively use as accommodation for asylum seekers.

The second highest paid company, Tetrarch Capital, received at least €34 million to accommodate asylum seekers and Ukrainians, according to department figures.

The payments were made to Tetrarch’s company, Cape Wrath Hotel UC, which owns the 764-bed Citywest Hotel and connected convention centre in southwest Dublin, which the department runs as a transit hub for asylum seekers arriving in the country.

Financial records show a number of the highest-paid companies were ultimately owned by corporate structures registered in locations such as Luxembourg, Malta and the Isle of Man.

Several were also incorporated as company structures that do not require them to provide details of their internal finances and profits in filed annual financial accounts.

The department had refused to release the identities of the highest-paid providers of accommodation under the Freedom of Information Act.

The figures were calculated by analysing logs of all payments over €20,000 made last year, which are required to be published quarterly by the department.

Each company was contacted by The Irish Times, but none responded to contest the calculated figures for the amounts received in payments.

Among the largest providers was UK-based JMK Group, which was paid at least €17.2 million to accommodate asylum seekers in its Holiday Inn Dublin Airport hotel last year.

A company owned by former Monaghan GAA football manager Séamus McEnaney, Brimwood Unlimited, was paid €23.8 million to accommodate asylum seekers.

Mosney Unlimited, a company that has for decades housed several hundred asylum seekers at a former holiday resort in Co Meath, was paid €15.8 million by the department last year.