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A DUBLIN HOTELIER received up to €8 million in payments to accommodate the homeless in the capital last year.
That is according to figures released by the Dublin Homeless Regional Executive (DHRE) which confirm that the unnamed hotelier received payments between €7 million and €8 million, with a second hotelier receiving payments between €2 million and €3 million, last year to house the homeless in hotel rooms.
The figures – released in response to a Freedom of Information request – show that a further seven hoteliers received payments between €1 million and €2 million last year.
The high payments to hoteliers has continued into 2017 with hotels and B&Bs receiving a total of €23.9 million for the six months to the end of June.
Hoteliers and B&B operators received €12 million between April and June and €11.94 million between January and March.
Included in that amount is payments totalling €3 million to €4 million to one hotelier, with two hoteliers receiving payments between €1 million and €2 million.
Budgets
In addition to the €23.9 million paid out between January and June to 127 operators, Dublin City Council has paid out €6.1 million to commercial emergency accommodation providers resulting in a total payout of €30 million for the first six months to private operators providing emergency accommodation to the homeless.
The budget for payments to hotels for the entire year is €49 million.
The €23.9 million spend to hoteliers for the first six months of this year compares to €38.9 million to hoteliers for the entire of 2016 while commercial emergency accommodation providers were paid €9m for the 12 months of 2016.
A spokeswoman for the DHRE said yesterday that 520 families have moved to ‘hubs’ between January to end-September 2017.
She said: “The initial capital programme for Dublin family hubs is €25m. Subsequent to that the Minister has announced a further €20m in ring-fenced capital funding available nationally.”
The latest figures provided from the Department of Housing show that 5,953 were living in emergency accommodation in September in Dublin including 2,416 children.
Independent member of Dublin City Council, Councillor Mannix Flynn said that the payments to hoteliers to accommodate the homeless “are off the Richter scale”.
He said:
Who are these hoteliers? How are these deals done? We should be told that. There needs to be transparency. A forensic audit of payments to private operators needs to be carried out and of all costs associated with the accommodating the homeless.”
“The more people are on the streets, the more money these people are making. €8 million to one hotelier is huge money. That would build a lot of houses and provide a huge amount of services.”
Previously, the FOI unit at the City Council declined to reveal what the 10 highest amounts paid to hotel operators/firms were or the top amounts received by privately owned hostels and B&Bs in 2015.
The Council stated that these details are commercially sensitive and it could damage the negotiating position of the City Council with private landlords/operators and could also result in further costs and the potential loss of accommodation.
The City Council had previously published the names of hotels and payments on quarterly produced purchase orders but discontinued this practice in 2015.
Super news for Cork. Along with the 300 other jobs for Cork announced previously. It’s great to have these companies establish all around Ireland, not just in Dublin, Leinster. Also shows how fast competitiveness can be regained in a few years.
Quite a comeback considering the knock they took in 2008 – fair play to the last few holdouts in Tyco Cork who clearly kept the door open until opportunity knocked.
Excellent news for Cork..
500 hundred more jobs for Cork, 200 at the Tindell instutute,another 200 in The ex Pfizer plant in Ringskiddy makes 900 total, looks like a very good week indeed for the Rebel County.
What part of good news do some of you not understand? If it bring one family in Cork out of the dole queue it’s good news. Simple!
Thanks Enda :)
Enda has nothing to do with this. Governments don’t create jobs. Neither do businesses. Consumers do.
Enda creates the environment and the stability to attract these jobs, therefore it is everything got to do with our greatest ever leader :)
Enda leaves money under your pillow when you lose a tooth as well
Does anyone ever go back a few months/years after these big announcements and see/report how many jobs were actually created?
Genuine question. Talk is easy, and talk of x hundred jobs means very little till there are bums on seats. But it gets great publicity, for the company as well as the relevant happy minister.
It’s great news but the tax raised by these jobs + corporate tax will be cancelled quickly by the 2,000 extra jobs required by Irish water.
There are no “extra” jobs in Irish water. These people are alredy working for the various local authorities around the country and are being transferred to Irish Water.
Half of them work for local authority half are employed !!
Ever the opportunity to see a glass half empty!
Pathetic Gary.
How many of those rolls will be allocated to jobs bridge
Do you mean breakfast rolls Kev?
Bitter Kevy?
It’s a relevant question
Stand by for the political photo opportunity
Or standby for people finding out about TYCO. You couldn’t make it up
Coupled with the resounding success of job bridge for all non lazy people, and the endless new jobs created the whinging class of nobodies are fast running out if excuses for their lazy useless ways
I sympathize with you. It is a struggle to post opinions when you have a limited vocabulary (…for all non lazy people) and limited cognitive function.
It was announced today that Tyco will be purchased by Johnson Controls, a company that pays its CEO 21 million dollars per year.
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