Government's ‘sensible' purchase of Citywest Hotel could save State more than €1bn – Jim O'Callaghan
Mr O'Callaghan said the Citywest Hotel has 764 rooms, and the purchase also includes a large multi-purpose convention centre, a leisure centre and a 6.7-hectare site with planning permission for a solar farm.
It was revealed on Tuesday that the hotel had been purchased by the Government at a cost of €148.2m.
The Justice Minister said the purchase of the hotel is a 'sensible decision', with the site already being used to house international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees.
'We're spending a lot of money by paying out to the commercial centre when we're renting premises, so it makes a lot more sense for us to own our own centres, our own properties, which is going to be cheaper in the long-term,' he told The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
'It also avoids the, I suppose, the tension that can arise by going around the country looking to identify hotels or other privately owned accommodations for the purpose of accommodating applicants.'
He said the hotel is being purchased from a corporate entity and should it be in use for 25 years, the State will save €1.125bn in total, based on savings of €45m per year over a 25 year period.
Mr O'Callaghan also highlighted the need for the processing of applications from those seeking asylum needs to be completed more quickly.
'It's a challenge in respect of people who are seeking asylum. We need to speed up the processing of applications so that they're not sitting around for very many months,' he said.
'As I announced previously, I want to see – and I'm bringing in a new law to this effect – that we will process first instance, and second instance decisions within a period of three months.'
He confirmed the decision-making process will be a case of applicants either returning home or getting to work in Ireland.
'I think that's the fairest situation. Sometimes people say dragging it out is unfair, then they say too fast is unfair,' he said.
'We need to process international protection applications much faster. My view is it's fairer to the individuals concerned and it's fairer and cheaper from the State's point of view.'
Mr O'Callahan said it is his hope that the purchase of the hotel will not cause any tension in the Citywest area.
'In fairness to the residents around Citywest, since 2022 it has been a centre for beneficiaries of temporary protection and international protection applicants, and it's worked very well since that date,' he said.
'We haven't seen any of the contentious or very negative campaigning against it that we may have seen in some other areas, and I just want to acknowledge and commend the people of the area for the way that they have responded to date in respect of what's going on there.'
The possibility of the need for accommodation for international protection applicants declining in future has been considered, opening up the possibility of the centre being used for other purposes, such as the building of new housing.
'It may be the case that the international protection numbers will continue to decline. We mightn't need it for solely international protection accommodation purposes and it's a valuable asset, so there's options there for the State,' he said.
He confirmed the on-site leisure centre, which has around 3,000 members, will continue to operate.
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