A health board employee who referred homeless people to a bed and breakfast owned by himself did nothing wrong, the Northern Area Health Board insisted yesterday.
However, The Irish Times has learned the health board stopped using the B&B as emergency accommodation for homeless persons some time after it received a complaint from a family who became temporarily homeless and were placed in the B&B.
The complaint was from a Dublin family referred for help to a community welfare officer in their health board area after they became homeless for a short period due to financial difficulty.
The community welfare officer found them accommodation in a B&B in Dublin but when they went there they were surprised to find the officer also owned the B&B. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest, they complained to the health board which agreed to inquire into the matter.
Asked about the inquiry yesterday a spokeswoman for the health board said staff had to declare commercial interests when taking up employment and the community welfare officer in this case had declared he was the owner of a B&B.
"Where a staff member has declared a commercial interest, the health board has procedures in place to avoid any difficulties," she said.
In this instance the procedures required the community welfare officer to seek approval from a manager before placing any person in his premises.
"Prior approval was sought from the manager before placing any persons in the premises as per procedure," the spokeswoman said.
"In relation to the case in question the manager of the service is satisfied that in this instance all correct policies and procedures were followed," she added.
Nonetheless, the B&B is no longer on the health board's emergency housing list.
The family who made the complaint to the health board contacted The Irish Times this week after it published an article based on a draft report compiled for the Homeless Agency which revealed a number of landlords were making "supernormal profits" from providing B&B accommodation to homeless persons in Dublin. One landlord last year earned €1.4 million.
B&Bs have been used extensively for homeless families due to a shortage of local authority homes and hostel facilities.