A company currently under High Court scrutiny was paid over €2.1m in a three-month period this year to provide emergency accommodation at Dundrum House Hotel in Co. Tipperary, writes Colm McGuirk.

The former hotel has been housing Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants over the past three years and has been subject to controversies over planning compliance, beneficial ownership and suitability.

A hearing was due to take place tomorrow over a Section 5 planning exemption initially granted to the hotel owners and later ceded by Tipperary County Council, but has been adjourned at the request of the owners.

Documents from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth show that Utmasta Limited was paid €2,129,070 between April and June this year to run the Dundrum accommodation centre.

It is the first time the department has made payments to the company which was set up in January this year and whose sole director is based in Majorca, Spain.

Prior to that, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth paid Brogan Capital Ventures almost €11.5m between September 2022 and March 2025 to run the site.

The latter company (which was owned by Dublin footballers Bernard Sr, Alan, and Bernard Jr Brogan until 2017) is, in turn, owned by Steelworks Investments Limited.

Steelworks was placed into liquidation earlier this year as legal attention came on to its longest serving director, Jeffrey Leo.

The American businessman is accused of defrauding US-based investors Mary and James Wenning out of over €50m in relation to funds received to invest in Irish hotels since the mid 2010s.

Mr Leo was debarred in his homeland in 2010, under allegations of – according to BrokerCheck.org – “unsuitable and unauthorised investments and trading, excessive trading and churning, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, misrepresentation and concealment, invasion of privacy, negligence, violation of the racketeer influenced corrupt organisation act (RICO), [and] unjust enrichment”.

Utmasta, which is understood to have secured a two-year contract with the department, has denied that Mr Leo has involvement with the company.

However, as reported by The Currency earlier this month, that was called “absolute lies” in the High Court by senior counsel Kelley Smith, on behalf of the liquidator, Interpath.

Ms Smith alleged that her client had accessed Steelworks’ servers and found emails from around the time Utmasta was set up that said: “To confirm Ana [Maria Fernadez Sanchez, Utmasta’s sole director] is the registered owner of all 120 of the issued shares of Utmasta Ltd and they are to be held on her trust as follows: 30 shares (25%) on behalf of Jeffrey Leo, 30 shares (25%) on behalf of [Mr Leo’s wife] Winifred Annal O’Sullivan”.

Another email read out in court from July this year appeared to reveal Mr Leo’s request to have “the 25% that is in my name” transferred to another party.

Local TD Michael Murphy has sought a Public Accounts Committee review of the contract, which has an estimated value of €16m over two years.

The Fine Gael TD said: “The issues I have raised concern the wider public interest – transparency in the award of public contracts, due diligence around beneficial ownership, compliance with planning law, and the safeguarding of taxpayer funds.

“These are matters the Dáil has a duty to examine independently.”

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has told Mr Murphy he could not comment on ongoing legal matters.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said this week that the department cannot comment on matters before the courts.