€3.5m wasted for never used asylum seeker centre

A REPORT to be launched today by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee is expected to criticise the OPW for wasting €3.5 million purchasing a Co Cork hotel five years ago which has never been used for its intended purpose as an asylum seeker centre.

And campaigners who have battled for five years to prevent the Department of Justice from turning Lynch’s Lodge Hotel in Macroom into an asylum seekers centre have also won a significant victory.

Macroom businessman Michael O’Riordan, together with local accountant Tim McSweeney, successfully argued that planning permission would be required for such a change of use, pointing out that a loss of hotel facilities would be detrimental to the area.