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Direct Provision centre shut over 'safety fears' was paid €12.7 million by the State

Repeated requests for essential maintenance to be carried out had been ignored by the centre, according to the government.

A DIRECT PROVISION centre that has been closed due to an alleged failure to meet basic health and safety standards was paid more than €12.7 million by the Government since 2001.

The contract for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers at Westbourne Holiday Hostel in Limerick was terminated by the Department of Justice after claims that management had failed to ensure the health and safety of residents.

Repeated requests for essential maintenance to be carried out had been ignored by the centre, according to the Department.

The contract for the provision of accommodation at the Limerick hostel was held by Westbourne Holiday Hostel Limited, which has received more than €12.7 million under contracts awarded by the State.

Records released by the Department of Justice show that eight contracts for the provision of accommodation at the centre have run consecutively almost uninterrupted from June 2001 until June 2014.

The value of these contracts varied from €544,320 to €3,095,820, totalling €12,741,279. Information relating to contracts awarded after 2014 has not been released by the Department due to reasons of commercial sensitivity.

The official capacity of the centre has ranged from 90 to 105 during the 13-year period. There were 64 residents at the hostel this week, who will be transferred to other accommodation centres.

A statement from the Department of Justice said: “The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) has invoked the termination clause of the contract with Westbourne Holiday Hostel Ltd at Westbourne Accommodation Centre, Dock Road, Limerick.

Despite repeated requests to the contractor from last autumn, a schedule of works to address essential maintenance and to ensure the health and safety of those resident in the centre has not been forthcoming.

The company is owned by Kenny Commercial Holdings Ltd – a subsidiary of Kenny Investment Holdings, which entered Nama as a going concern on 16 December 2010.

Last July, Westbourne’s borrowings of €1.37 million were sold by Nama to OCM EmRu Debtco DAC, which is a subsidiary of Oaktree Capital Management Ltd – a so-called vulture capital fund company.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General last year revealed that the State had paid a total of €251 million between to contractors for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers between 2010 and 2015.

There are currently 31 Direct Provision centres located in 16 counties, according to the RIA. Seven of these are state-owned, while others are run by private companies under contract with the Department of Justice.

Read: Direct Provision centre in Limerick shuts over ‘health and safety fears’

Read: When Syria comes to Roscommon: ‘We can’t run to Mass, then say ‘you’re not welcome”

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9 Comments
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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jan 27th 2017, 6:08 AM

    1/4 of a billion spent in 5 years on accommodation for refugees and nobody is happy with the outcome

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    Mute Sean O'Connor
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:47 AM

    @Martin Sinnott: The vast majority of them are bogus. They shouldn’t be in direct provision centres. They should be deported.

    http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/PR07000171

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    Mute Mike Cantwell
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:51 AM

    Not to worry Sinn Fein are working hard to make sure everyone gets Passports , they can look forward to a life on benefits and a trip home to the very country they claimed they had to flee from , but don’t worry everything will be grand and the Shinners have more voters

    69
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    Mute Tony Le Blanc
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    Jan 27th 2017, 2:29 PM

    Ahh the endless waste. Plenty of money in the country folks, just in the hands of cossetted civil servants who haven’t a f*cking clue what efficient means.

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    Mute Athanasius Alexandria
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:17 AM

    €10-€20k per person per annum isn’t a lot to house and fee and give pocket money to someone. No wonder they couldn’t afford to maintain the place.

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    Mute Kieran OKeeffe
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:45 AM

    @Athanasius Alexandria:
    400 per week..lot of working poor trying to raise families and survive on that amount..or less

    46
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    Mute Athanasius Alexandria
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:49 PM

    Closer to €250, probably similar to dole, maybe less than dole when you add in rent allowance etc.

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    Mute Duncan Paul
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:42 PM

    Follow the money

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    Mute Izzeddeen Huneyhen
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    May 17th 2017, 1:02 AM

    Hello Irish friends.
    I’m an asylum seeker living in direct provisions. And I really feel apologetic to those of you who are frustrated because of the direct provision bill. I can understand it.
    Coming to Ireland wasn’t really a luxurious option that I made. I was set our of my home country waiting Israelis to allow my wife to join me, at the end I had to find a common place for my family. Before I land in Ireland last September, I was thinking I would have a decision within three months, either approve us, and allow us to stay and work rather than being a burden on the state, or reject our application and deport us to any country that would take us as a family. Unfortunately, since the day of arrival, I didn’t have my hearing interview!
    I note that most of media are talking a lot about direct provision, but the processing times and application handling mechanism is rarely talked about.
    I wrote some of my experience in direct provision in this blog:
    http://izz.name/2017/05/15/direct-provision-from-inside/

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