Drumshambles: Ukrainians evicted as legal row erupts over hotel

10 July-August 2024

White lodged documens wih he High

Cour climing he owns he lnds nd

seeking up o €1 million in monies

owed by Leirim Couresy Ld. for is

use of his lnd

Drumshambles:

Ukrainians evicted as legal

row erupts over hotel

A legal battle over the ownership of lands

around the Lough Allen hotel in Drumshanbo,

County Leitrim, may have inﬂuenced the

decision by the Department of Integration in

May to move 188 Ukrainian refugees from the

property.

As reported in Village earlier this year, the

original hotel developer has issued High Court

proceedings against the current management,

Leitrim Courtesy Ltd. and Mazars, the receiver.

Mazars was appointed by the Cerberus

subsidiaries, Promontoria Aran and Arrow over

outstanding loans owed by the previous

owners in 2017.

Further proceedings were issued this month

by Meath-based developer, Paddy White, who

has claimed that Leitrim Courtesy Ltd. is

trespassing on his property in order to access

the hotel.

In mid-May, the Department of Integration

instructed the Ukrainian residents to vacate

the premises and organised alternative

accommodation. It stated that it did not intend

to renew its annual contact with Leitrim

Courtesy Ltd which opened the hotel for

refugees in April 2022.

The company, whose directors have

included Niall McManus, of Curraghill,

Drumshanbo, his wife Anne Marie and sister,

Karen McManus of Dowra Road, Drumshanbo,

has been paid up to €500,000 per month by

the Department for providing the facility.

Explaining the decision to end its

arrangement with Leitrim Courtesy Ltd, the

Department told Village in late May: “All

accommodations contracted by the

Department is temporary in nature. Moves

happen frequently when contracts end.

Alternative oers of accommodation will be

provided to the residents”.

As reported by Village, White lodged

documents with the High Court claiming that

he owns the lands which provide access to the

complex. He is also seeking up to €1 million in

monies owed by Leitrim Courtesy Ltd. for its

use of his land.

In June, solicitors, Byrne Wallace acting for

the receivers Mazars, lodged an application

with the Property Services Regulatory

Authority seeking to obtain a right of way to the

property. This is being contested by White and

a hearing in the High Court is expected to take

place within weeks.

Meanwhile, the majority of the Ukrainian

residents have moved into private

accommodation in the Leitrim area since the

sudden termination of funds to Leitrim

Courtesy Ltd. by the Department of Integration

at the end of May.

Some have been housed in vacant holiday

homes and other dwellings with the assistance

of the Oer a Home programme run by Leitrim

County Council. Other private property-owners

have taken in Ukrainian refugees through the

Accommodation Recognition Payment scheme

under which they can earn up to €800 per

month tax-free.

Doherty fails to clear up

debt query

Regina Doherty did not let an awkward query

from Village just days before the European

Parliament election, to which she had still not

at the time of publication replied. get in the way

By Frank Connolly

of her successful campaign. She was asked

about the sale of a lease of a property owned

by her and her husband, Declan, at Ashbourne,

County Meath in 2018. The property at

Ashbourne Industrial Park was used by the

couple for their IT sales business, Enhanced

Solutions Ltd, which went into liquidation in

2013 with losses of over €200,000 and debts

of €59,000 to Revenue and €50,000 to AIB,

among other debtors.

During the 2016 general election campaign

Doherty insisted that her debts had been paid

and that they had taken out a loan to repay AIB

“which will probably take me the rest of my life

to pay back”.

She originally purchased the lease from

property developer Michael Ryan of Rybo Ltd

and his partner, John Bourke, in July 2007,

according to property registration documents

seen by Village. Ryan is a big player in the

re-zoning of lands between Ratoath and

Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath,

where Doherty served as a TD until 2020. He is

also associated with a controversial bribe

given to a councillor in Waterford who was

jailed for corruption some years ago. Doherty

has praised Ryan in the past for providing

materials for the building of a boxing club in

Raystown among other constituency

donations.

Stephan Grehan of Lucan, who purchased

the lease in Ashbourne in November 2018 just

over a year after the AIB loan was cleared, is a

son-in-law of Michael Ryan. Grehan is involved

with a company, Pivotal Construction Ltd, of

which Ryan is a director. Doherty declined to

comment on the price paid by Grehan for the

property or on whether she has lobbied on

behalf of him or his companies.

Councillor Tommy Reilly

shafted but not by SIPO

Village is also disappointed to hear that the

chairman of Meath County Council, Tommy

Reilly, has failed in his bid for re-election after

a low ﬁrst-preference vote and an apparent

reluctance by his Fianna Fáil colleagues to

encourage their transfers to him. A postponed

public hearing by SIPO into revelations by

Village of Reilly’s role in a controversial land

re-zoning at Liscarton outside Navan in 2018

which beneﬁted his son, Ciarán, has yet to be

scheduled, according to SIPO.

Doherty

NEWS

Reilly

Former Lough Allen Hotel: now refugee reception centre