Vol. 572 No. 4
58 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the measures he has put in place to redress a problem (details supplied); if properties will not be acquired only then to lie idle; and if properties acquired will not be sold off at a loss to the State as was the case with Devereux House in Rosslare, which was acquired for ?2.74 million and subsequently sold for ?1.8 million. [23502/03]
My Department's Reception and Integration Agency, the RIA, is responsible, among other things, for meeting the accommodation needs of asylum seekers. Purchases of property under the asylum seeker accommodation programme are dealt with by the Office of Public Works, acting on behalf of the agency. Since 1999, the Office of Public Works has purchased ten properties, leased one site and developed two system-built centres and three mobile home sites for the purpose of accommodating asylum seekers. Over the same period, the RIA has entered into commercial contracts for service arrangements with the owners of more than 100 properties for the same purpose. All of the facilities, with the exception of four properties and one leased site, have been or are currently in use to accommodate asylum seekers. Approximately 31,000 asylum seekers have been accommodated to date and related services have been provided for them by the RIA. The current daily average number of asylum seekers being accommodated by the RIA is 6,000, which equates to 42,000 bed nights per week.
There was some controversy and significant local opposition in respect of the use of the four properties and one leased site which, regrettably, remain unoccupied for the purpose of accommodating asylum seekers. The properties in question are four of a total of 120 properties procured nationwide for this purpose. Similar difficulties were experienced with other properties, but these difficulties were addressed through compromise in most cases. Compromise proved to be elusive, however, in respect of the four properties which had been purchased and the leased site. The properties, two of which are former hotels – the other two being a retreat centre and a hostel, are located in Rosslare, Macroom, Donnybrook and Myshall. The leased site is located at Leggetsrath in County Kilkenny.
Sustained and repeated efforts were made to address the concerns of local residents in the areas where the properties and the site are located. Local interests in Macroom and in Donnybrook have exercised their right to challenge the use of the properties in the courts on planning grounds. The State is defending the planning permission in respect of these two properties and the matter awaits determination by the High Court. The development of the leased site in County Kilkenny has also been halted pending the outcome of judicial review proceedings on planning matters relating to it. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this time in such circumstances, as I do not want to compromise current High Court litigation. I can say, however, that the RIA acted at all times in accordance with the legal advice of the Attorney General in respect of planning matters relating to these and all other properties.
Additional Information.I will deal with the remaining two properties. Following the purchase in early 2000 of the property at Myshall in County Carlow for use as an accommodation centre for asylum seekers, representations were made by the South-Eastern Health Board and the Irish Society for Autism seeking to have the property made available for use as a residential service for children with disabilities who require specialist care. There was strong local opposition to the use of this property to accommodate asylum seekers. In these circumstances, the Office of Public Works was informed in March 2001 that the RIA had no objections to the property being made available to the South-Eastern Health Board for use as a centre for these children.
The property at Rosslare Harbour was purchased in April 2000 for use as a reception centre for all asylum seekers arriving in Rosslare. The situation in Rosslare had become critical at that time because the number of asylum seekers arriving at the port was almost equal to the number making claims at Dublin Airport. The Devereux Hotel in Rosslare presented a ready-made solution. The fact that it was available for immediate occupation was a key factor, given the numbers arriving at the port. Due to the introduction of a number of initiatives by the Garda National Bureau of Immigration in co-operation with the French immigration authorities, however, the number of applicants fell from almost 1,500 in 2000 to less than 100 in 2001. The number of applicants in Rosslare has remained very low since then. There was intense local opposition to the use of the premises as accommodation for asylum seekers, notwithstanding the fall-off in numbers applying at Rosslare, and a 24 hour picket was placed on them. It was made clear that any attempt to accommodate asylum seekers would be resisted to the point of physically blocking the entrance. In September 2001, the Office of Public Works was advised that, in the light of the completely altered circumstances in Rosslare, the property was no longer required to accommodate newly arrived asylum seekers. I understand that the Office of Public Works conducted a trawl of all Departments with a view to establishing whether it could be utilised for other purposes. No such alternative use was identified and the property was sold by the Office of Public Works earlier this year.
I want to home in on the properties mentioned by the Minister, which were acquired at a cost of €19 million. The 25-bedroom Devereux Hotel in Rosslare, which was acquired in March 2001 at a cost of €2.74 million, was subsequently sold in July 2003 for €1.8 million. The security costs associated with the property amounted to almost €500,000. The site at Leggetsrath was leased in March 2002 for €184,000 per annum. A contract was entered into to provide portable housing at the site at a cost of €6.56 million. Some €2.5 million has been expended on this site to date. I wonder if the Minister can tell me if the contractor has done any work for that money. Broc House in Donnybrook, which is idle at present, was purchased for €9.2 million. The security costs associated with the property to date come to €500,000.
There is a long lost of sites, but the one I would like to discuss is the Devereux Hotel in Rosslare, which was bought for €2.74 million and sold for €1.8 million. Some serious questions need to be asked about the valuation process. Have any such questions been asked within the Department? How could one lose €1 million on a hotel in the property market of the last few years? Some of the excuses that have been provided in this regard are hard to accept. The low selling price has been attributed to the absence of a special purpose purchaser, the foot and mouth disease crisis and the effects of the loss of goodwill and trade during the period when the property was not used as an hotel. The claim that there has been a general deterioration in the market for this type of property is very hard to believe. It is a complete fiasco.
When one examines the figures in this regard, one finds that about €20 million is involved. Given that it costs about €50,000 to recruit a garda, some 400 extra gardaí could be recruited for the sum of money in question. The Minister is constantly complaining that he does not have the resources for extra gardaí. He had the extra resources, but he and his Department squandered them. The Office of Public Works has squandered money left, right and centre. I have given a practical example of what could have been done with the money. It could have been spent on recruiting gardaí who are needed on the streets.
The implication of the Deputy's comments is that I made the decisions he has mentioned. He is aware that I did not make the decisions, however, as they were made and put into effect before I became Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Deputy Deasy's implication that I have in some way made decisions that have cost the taxpayer money is an incorrect and unfounded one. I share the Deputy's concern that a property purchased by the State yielded a significant loss in value when sold at a proximate date. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform relies on the valuations it receives from the Office of Public Works in respect of these matters. The Office of Public Works is the State agency trusted by the various line Departments to give expert and qualified advice on properties purchased.
It should be borne in mind that Ireland was inundated by a totally unexpected phenomenon, a wave of refugees, when these purchases were made during the term of the previous Government. Decisions had to be made very quickly in such circumstances in order to accommodate the refugees. The fairly stark alternative was to leave refugees on the streets, in hallways or under cardboard boxes in our cities. It was for the Government of the day to make decisions to accommodate the wholly unanticipated phenomenon of a sudden influx of people into Ireland, which had, until 1997, been a country of net emigration where this phenomenon had not been experienced.
Decisions were made to purchase premises across the country. In some cases the policy decisions which underlay the purchases were taken to make sure that these premises were not concentrated in a particular part of the country but were spread fairly across various locations regardless of the socio-economic status of the inhabitants. In those circumstances some properties may have been purchased at an over-value and the Comptroller and Auditor General has drawn attention to that fact.
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform operated in the face of an emergency. It acted in good faith to prevent people from being forced to live in the open and it did so on the basis of expert valuations tendered to it and not otherwise. The implication of the Deputy's question, that I have made decisions which have amounted to the spending of money on this issue which could have been spent on other things, is not correct. I have faced up to the situations which I have found myself dealing with and in a number of cases, as the Deputy is well aware, I am awaiting the decision of the courts. I cannot walk away from the courts or throw the properties back at the purchasers.
Question No. 59.
I am not blaming the Minister for this fiasco. I am asking a very simple question.
We are over the time limit for that question, Deputy. The Chair has called Question No. 59.
Has the Minister asked how his Department lost €1 million on property within the space of three years? If €1 million has been lost within his Department the Minister is entitled to ask that question.
We cannot continue with that question. I call on the Minister to answer Question No. 59.
The Minister is not responsible for the loss but he will not ask the question in his Department. Has he no interest in the matter? He is avoiding the problem. Is there accountability in the Government?
