Low-profile businessmen Kevin Farrell and Thomas McNicholas netted a €4 million payout from their emergency accommodation group last year.
The pair’s property group, which operates from the former Sheldon Park Hotel on Kylemore Road in Dublin 12, owns several large townhouse properties in central Dublin utilised by the State for refugees and homeless people.
New financial accounts for Farrell and McNicholas’s firm K&T Forbairt Holdings Unlimited Company show it earned €28.4 million in revenue in the 12-month period to the end of August 2025, compared to €19.3 million the previous year, and after-tax profits rose from €7 million to €10.1 million.
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The vast majority of revenue was linked to the provision of emergency accommodation, with some €2.2 million generated from the sale of food.
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Farrell and McNicholas, the only two directors of the group, approved the payment of a €4 million payout during the financial year. The pair also received combined remuneration of €240,000.
The consolidated accounts for the group have disclosed it controls €19.5 million worth of property, with many of these buildings owned by individual subsidiaries.
Land records show Farrell and McNicholas own at least three properties in the Gardiner Street area of Dublin 1 and two further properties in Phibsborough, Dublin 7. Many of these properties are Georgian-era buildings that have been subdivided into many individual, self-contained units.
Each subsidiary in Farrell and McNicholas’s group involved in the emergency accommodation business was formed in the past seven years. They employed a combined 146 people last year, with total salaries at the group €5.3 million.
Last year, the group also amended its ownership structure, which has resulted in it now being owned by K&T Services Limited Partnership. The accounts stated that Farrell and McNicholas are still the ultimate controlling parties of the group.
The Irish Times contacted the company for comment. No reply was received ahead of publication.
Farrell and McNicholas’s companies are among the biggest earners in terms of revenue from the State’s refugee and homeless accommodation systems.
This is the first time their main holding company has published consolidated accounts, which have given a full picture of their revenues and profits made from the emergency accommodation system.
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In recent years, total payments to private firms for provision of refugee accommodation services have risen above €2 billion annually.
Last year, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said the State has incurred “extremely high costs” from accommodation providers. And he committed to put in place more State-owned solutions to reduce reliance on private firms.
He said the €2 billion annual spend on refugee accommodation came about due to “an imbalance of power in negotiation with private accommodation providers”.
Last year, the State agreed a €148 million deal to buy the City West hotel and large amounts of land around the hotel as part of this approach to move away from reliance on the private sector towards State-owned provision of emergency accommodation.
