Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a hugely important issue for my constituents in the Louth-Meath area. As the whole country knows, the D Hotel in Drogheda has 113 bedrooms. Apart from the 16-bed Scholars Townhouse Hotel, it is the only hotel in Drogheda now open to new guests. The decision to take over the D Hotel and put 500 IP applicants in there was the Minister's decision and it was made without consultation. The Minister has to be held accountable for this because people are very angry and dismayed. This is not because IP applicants are coming to Drogheda but because the Minister is taking our only hotel from us. That is the key point.

On 13 February 2023, he said: "All statutory requirements relating to the establishment and management of emergency accommodation, are being met by the service provider, including health and safety, fire, building regulations and other requirements." In reply to a parliamentary question I tabled on 12 December 2023, the Minister said:

The Local Authority have a regulatory role in relation to properties being brought on stream to verify that they meet the required building, planning and fire safety regulations. Once all the documentation is received, the Department continues to engage with the appropriate fire certification authorities to ensure fire certification is up to date and once evidence of sign-off is received from the relevant authorities and provided to the Department, a contract is signed for the use of that property.

No such document was received by the Minister or his Department from the local authority. That is a fact. How do I know that? A letter came into my possession, which I understand the Minister has a copy of, from a firm of solicitors in Dublin, written on behalf of Hallscotch Venture Limited, the owners of the shopping centre, to Fairkeep Limited, the occupants of the D Hotel. It states, among other things:

We would refer you to your letter [the Fairkeep Limited letter] of 20 February, wherein you confirmed that your Client was satisfied that the proposal was compliant with fire safety regulations. We are instructed that our Client has contacted Mr Eamonn Woulfe, Chief Fire Officer, Louth County Council, (to whom we are copying this letter) who confirmed that he wrote to your client and informed it that the proposed change from a hotel to IPAS accommodation requires an application to be made for a new fire safety certificate. Mr Woulfe further confirmed to our Client that as of lunchtime today, no response was received to his letter and no application has been lodged for a revised fire safety certificate.

There it is clear in black and white that the Minister did not conform to his own regulations. He did not insist on full compliance with his regulations and he signed a contract without a fire certificate, which is the cause and the reason for this concern.

The premises is now a huge controversy. People like me, who fully support IPA's applicants coming to town and have no issue with it, know that the anger is not because they are coming in, but because there was no consultation and there has been no fire certification to date, which is the other key point. That does not mean it is not going to follow, but it was not in place when the Minister signed. Therefore, the contract is null and void. The Minister has been asked to renegotiate the contract. Is he going to do that, and if not, why not?

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