Healy-Rae Ukrainian accommodation contract worth more than €160,000

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae’s contract to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees in a guest house in Tralee, Co Kerry was estimated to be worth more than €160,000 last year, according to Department of Integration records.

The Kerry TD previously refused to disclose the value of his contract with the department, after including it in his annual declaration of interests submitted to the Oireachtas.

Procurement records from the department show the value of the contract last year was estimated to be potentially worth €166,800, excluding VAT, depending on the occupancy rates in the building he owns in Tralee.

The contract is to house Ukrainians in a former guest house on the Listowel Road, Tralee, with 13 people currently living in the property.

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Records show Mr Healy-Rae entered into an initial contract to provide accommodation up to last May, which had an estimated value of €21,840, excluding VAT. A second contract for an estimated €144,960 (excluding VAT) was signed up to the end of last November.

The guest house continues to be used to house Ukrainian refugees, with the department to publish details of contracts covering the first quarter of this year in the coming months.

Mr Healy Rae said he did not wish to comment on the contract with the department when contacted by The Irish Times.

A department spokesman said the procurement figures laid out the formal exchange of contracts with accommodation providers.

“We have been advised that the value of the contracts shown are estimates and that real cost materialises upon occupancy and actual usage,” he said.

Mr Healy-Rae has previously called for a cap to be put on the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers taken in by the State. He has also stated there was an over-concentration of people seeking international protection being accommodated in Killarney, the popular Co Kerry tourist town.

In recent days the Independent TD stated there was no inconsistency in his comments criticising Government policy on refugees and him holding a contract to supply accommodation to Ukrainians.

In his declaration of interests, Mr Healy-Rae declared 17 apartments and houses for letting through Roughty Properties Ltd, of which he is a director.

The Government has relied on hundreds of hotels and private providers of accommodation to house the tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war with Russia, as well as record numbers of asylum seekers from other countries who have sought international protection in the country.

The State has come under intense pressure to source accommodation, and is currently accommodating more than 57,000 refugees from Ukraine and nearly 20,000 asylum seekers from other countries.