Healy-Rae firm paid €1.38m for accommodating Ukrainians since 2022, with payments halved this year

A FIRM OWNED by Kerry TD and former minister of State Michael Healy-Rae has received €54,270 from the State to date this year for accommodating Ukrainians.

The 2026 payout of €54,270 brings to €1.38 million the amount that Healy-Rae’s firm – Roughty Properties, trading as Rosemont House – has received in State payments for accommodating Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia since 2022.

However, the €54,270 received to date this year by the Healy-Rae firm is less than half the €113,480 the firm received last year in accommodating Ukrainians.

Further illustrating the drop in revenues for Healy-Rae’s Roughty Properties from accommodating Ukrainians, the 2026 total is down sharply on the €172,680 the firm previously received for one quarter alone – the third quarter of 2024.

The most recent accounts for Roughty Properties show that it recorded post tax profits of €241,244 in the 12 months to the end of May 2025.

The drop in payments to Healy-Rae’s firm is part of a sharp downturn in payments by the Department of Justice to commercial providers to accommodate Ukrainians this year.

In the third quarter of this year, the department has paid out €46.84 million to commercial operators to accommodate Ukrainians.

Year-on-year, the spend on accommodating Ukrainians has decreased by 43%.

The €46.84 million is also sharply down on the €61.45 million for the second quarter of this year and €61.42 million for the first quarter of this year.

The big drop in accommodation costs for Ukrainians follows government policy brought into force last November that new arrivals are accommodated in Designated Accommodation Centres (DACs) for a maximum of 30 days under the time-bound policy.

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In May, the cabinet agreed that most of the 16,000 Ukrainians living in State-contracted commercial accommodation at the time will be required to find alternative homes by March 2027.

In all, it has cost the State an average of €3.35 million per day for the first nine months of this year to pay private operators to accommodate International Protection (IP) applicants and Ukrainians.

Department figures show the overall spend to commercial providers from January to the end of September to accommodate International Protection (IP) applicants and Ukrainians totals €915.54 million.

The figures also show that the State has paid the former owners of the Citywest Hotel in west Dublin, Cape Wrath UC €63 million (incl VAT) to accommodate IP applicants over the past 12 months.

In August of last year, the State paid Tetrarch Capital firm, Cape Wrath UC €148.25 million (incl VAT) for Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre, which has a capacity of approximately 2,300.

However, as part of a transitional arrangement with government post-purchase with Cape Wrath UC, the firm continues to manage the hotel on behalf of the State.

Quarterly Purchase Order figures from the department show that it paid Cape Wrath UC €13.75 million between 1 July and 30 September.

This follows the government paying Cape Wrath UC a cumulative €49.24 million in three prior quarterly periods since the start of October last year.

In total, the department paid out €298.54 million across the three months of July, August and September to all commercial operators to accommodate IP applicants and Ukrainians, that included €251.7 million paid out to commercial operators to accommodate IP applicants.

The Dáil Register of Interests shows that Healy-Rae remains the biggest landlord in the Dáil, owning 28 properties and pieces of land.

Healy-Rae described his occupations alongside being a politician as: a postmaster; farmer; service station owner; plant hire; and owner of rental properties.

Healy-Rae also has shares in the New York Times.