Salthill Direct Provision centre earns more than €32 million

The company contracted to run the Eglinton Hotel Direct Provision Centre in Salthill made a loss of €70,000 last year, according to company accounts.

However, Maplestar Limited, had revenue reserves of more than €3.5 million in 2016.

The Flannery family – which also operates the Imperial Hotel and Flannery’s Hotel in Galway and the Ashling Hotel near Heuston Station in Dublin – has been operating the centre for asylum seekers and refugees since the beginning of 2000.

From January 2000 to May 2014 – the most up-to-date figures available – the centre received contracts totalling just under €32.5 million from the government for its operation.

The 2016 accounts filed for Maplestar at the Companies Registration Office show it had retained reserves of €3.52m at the end of the year, down from €3.59m twelve months earlier.

Maplestar paid its parent company, Foxfield Inns Ltd, €500,000 for rent at the Eglinton and it paid €1.05m in salaries, wages, social security costs and pension contributions for the 24 staff (including directors).

Meanwhile, Foxfield Inns has applied to the City Council for planning permission for the redevelopment of the Eglinton – including a two-storey extension to the front – into 38 apartments, as well as a new covered winter garden and an open roof garden on the first floor. There will also be solar panels to the rear of the building.

An artist’s impression of the Eglinton redevelopment