Citywest hotel in Dublin was paid €53.6m to accommodate asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees in 2023

The State paid more than €53 million to the owner of Dublin’s Citywest hotel last year to accommodate asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees, according to figures from the Department of Integration.

Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited, which is owned by investment group Tetrach Capital and runs the 764-bed Citywest hotel and convention centre in Saggart, Co Dublin, received €53.7 million in payments in 2023 to provide board and accommodation to international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees.

The latest Department of Integration quarterly purchase orders figures, covering all of last year, reveal large hotel groups and companies were paid tens of millions of euro in Government contracts last year to provide accommodation for people seeking asylum and Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection.

A department spokesperson said a total of €1.49 billion was spent last year on accommodation for those fleeing the war in Ukraine, and a further €640 million on accommodation for international protection applicants.

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More than 28,100 international protection applicants are currently living in State-provided accommodation, while the State is also accommodating 74,500 Ukrainians.

Figures shows Cape Wrath received the biggest State payment in 2023, followed by Brimwood Limited, which was paid more than €30 million for accommodation. The payment to Brimwood Limited, which is owned by former Monaghan GAA football manager Séamus McEnaney (55) and his daughters Sarah (24) and Laura (30), has doubled since 2020 when the company was paid €15.7 million

Guestford Limited, which trades as the Red Cow Moran Hotel, received the third highest accommodation payment last year at €26.5 million.

Travelodge hotels, which are owned by hotel operator Tifco, received more than €25 million is accommodation payments. Tifco was separately paid €16.2 million for other accommodation provision for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees last year.

Mosney Holidays Public Limited Company, which accommodates several hundred asylum seekers at a former holiday resort in Mosney, was paid more than €25 million by the department last year.

Holiday Inn Dublin Airport received the sixth highest State payment of €23.3 million for accommodation provision last year, followed by Windward Management Limited, which is owned by hotelier Patrick Coyle and received €20 million.

Allpro security services management company received €19.6 million in Government payments last year, while Next Week and Co Limited, which operates accommodation centres in counties Roscommon and Cork, received €19.1 million.

Townbe Limited, which runs self-catering accommodation centres in counties Westmeath, Leitrim and Kerry, was paid €19 million in 2023, while Millstreet Equestrian services, which runs centres in counties Kerry, Tipperary, Cork and Waterford, received €16.8 million.

Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman committed last week to providing 14,000 State-owned beds by 2028 as part of a wider plan to make 35,000 spaces available across the system.

Ministers have been told the Government plans to spend €5 billion on accommodating asylum seekers over the next 20 years, an amount which is projected to be significantly cheaper than continuing to source beds in the private sector.

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