The report of the State’s financial watchdog showed the Government is “utterly incompetent” in the management of “billions in public money”, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has claimed.
Highlighting a chapter in the Comptroller & Auditor General’s report on international protection, Ms McDonald said in the Dáil there was “breathtaking evidence” of overcharging by private operators of accommodation on which the Government will spend €1.2 billion this year.
The report, published on Tuesday, showed “companies charging for beds that were not provided”, incomplete due diligence records, unverifiable invoice rates, unsigned contacts in more than one third of cases and proof of ownership or lease provided in only 5 per cent of properties examined.
Calling for a review of all contracts, she said one operator, who still has a Government contract, had charged €7.4 million for VAT when the accommodation is VAT exempt.
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Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said however that the VAT issue was brought to the attention of the Department of Justice and the Revenue Commissioners by the provider itself.
“My understanding is that that money has been reconciled and paid back, and there’s no further monies that are outstanding.”
He said every contract is being examined on expiration as Ms McDonald called for every single contract to be reviewed.
Mr O’Callaghan said “the real driver of expenditure in this area is the number of residents in the system” which rose from 7,683 in 2019 to 32,700 last year, with spending rising from €129 million in 2019 to €1 billion last year.
The State has gone from 78 accommodation centres in 2019 to 324 last year, he said. The Minister acknowledged issues around pre-contract due diligence and compliance but he said he had taken measures to ensure better value for money including renegotiating more than 100 contracts with savings of around €50 million.
“I’ve also terminated 12 contracts that have been terminated for a variety of reasons, including inadequate services being provided and inadequate quality as well.”
But Ms McDonald said the Minister should not “attribute this waste to those in the accommodation”. She expressed concern this “is only the tip of the iceberg”, pointing to figures showing “two directors, of a cafe turned International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) accommodation, paid themselves €4.6 million in 2024 when only three years earlier, that same company made a profit of a mere €2,092. Now that’s some pay hike."
She described it as “cowboy stuff” with a small number of private operators becoming multi-millionaires overnight “at the expense of the taxpayer”.
Mr O’Callaghan said they were reducing the cost to the State and the new average is €71 per person per night and that they were moving from private to State-owned accommodation which cut costs per resident from €31,000 to €12,000 a year.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns pointed to the Garda spending €248,500 on hotel accommodation for members policing the 2024 Uefa league final in Dublin, as part of the “millions of euro of public money flushed down the drain” with “no controls, no oversight, no accountability”.
The Government was wasting its budget surplus while at the same time there is “a worsening housing disaster, threadbare Disability Services and crumbling infrastructure”, she said.
Mr O’Callaghan said of the Garda’s hotel accommodation that “that type of spending should not have occurred”.
He said gardaí “now recognise that they should not be booking in rooms that far in advance, or if they are, they don’t need to book them all.
“And secondly, they need to ensure that they have an appropriate cancellation policy in place that will ensure that the State and the Garda are not left in a position where they have to meet such a large bill for unaccommodated members.”
