Shannon Key West Hotel expected to accommodate asylum seekers in the New Year, court hears

By Ann O'Loughlin

A hotel which has been at the centre of a High Court dispute is expected to open as accommodation for asylum seekers in the new year.

The 39-room Shannon Key West Hotel at Rooskey on the Co Leitrim/Roscommon border is the subject of proceedings between Paradub Ltd which wants to develop the property into a tourist hotel and its owner businessman James Kiernan.

Paradub claims it entered into an agreement to buy the hotel, which closed in 2011, from Mr Kiernan, which the company alleges he has failed to complete.

Earlier this month Paradub launched proceedings after it discovered from local media reports that a plan has been put in place to use the property to house refugees.

The company claims this breaches the purchase agreement and is an attempt to frustrate the sale of the property.

Paradub seeks orders including an injunction restraining the defendant from entering into any agreement to lease, transfer and dispose of the property to any other person other than the plaintiff.

Mr Kiernan denies the claims against him and opposes the injunction application.

The case was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Leoine Reynolds today.

Padraic Lyons Bl for Mr Kiernan said his side had served the plaintiffs with a sworn statement in reply to the injunction application.

Counsel said that an agreement was in place between his client and another party in relation to the use of the hotel.

That third party, counsel said, had entered into an arrangement with the Department of Justice for the hotel to be used as accommodation for asylum seekers starting from January 7.

It was now a matter for the plaintiff if it wishes to join this third party to the proceedings, counsel said.

Counsel for the company Jack Tchrakian Bl said his side had only recently received the defendant's sworn affidavit and required time to consider its contents.

Ms Justice Reynolds, noting the urgency of the matter, adjourned the case to next week.

Previously the Judge granted the company permission to serve short notice of the injunction proceedings against Mr Kiernan.

It claims that in 2016 an option agreement for the sale of the hotel was entered into between the company and Mr Kiernan of Glenart Avenue Blackrock, Co Dublin for almost €600,000.

The allegedly agreed option was to be exercised by December 2017.

When the company decided to exercise the option in October 2017 it claims Mr Kiernan ignored their requests to issue draft contracts.

This resulted in the company initiating legal proceedings against Mr Kiernan in 2017, and it issued a Lis Pendens, an official notice to the public that a lawsuit involving a claim on a property has been filed, against the hotel.