John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

Last week figures provided to me confirmed that more than €400,000 of taxpayers' money was wasted on the failed IPAS accommodation site at River Lodge in Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow. This is a shocking example of mismanagement from start to finish. From day one I and the local community warned the then Minister that the site was completely unsuitable but the Government pressed ahead anyway, recklessly and over the heads of those affected and impacted. Tented accommodation was installed on a site that could never have worked. By December 2024, less than ten months later, the whole thing collapsed when bad weather made the tents unusable and residents had to be moved out. Now the site sits empty, and one year later the Government is still paying for private security on this particular site. More money is being thrown away. River Lodge has to be handed back to the community for community use to serve the people and not be a further drain on taxpayers. Will the Government commit to ending the waste of taxpayers' money at this site and return the site for community use?

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