A hospital spent more than €400,000 on hotel accommodation after taking over a building belonging to a charity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beaumont Hospital was taken to the High Court by the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) after it repeatedly failed to hand back a 13-bedroom support centre to the charity.
It has now emerged that the Dublin hospital was spending more than €100,000-per-year accommodating clients of the IKA at a nearby hotel.
Figures released by Beaumont show how €106,756 has already been spent at the Clayton Airport Hotel this year to cover the cost of 747 nights of accommodation.
A further €162,342 was paid last year to the same hotel to pay for 868 nights, the hospital said.
Overall, Beaumont said they have spent €401,945 at the Clayton Airport Hotel to provide 2,946 nights of accommodation.
This worked out at an average cost per night of around €136, according to details they provided in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The hospital said that all the expenditure related to accommodation of Irish Kidney Association clients and that no other domestic hotel costs were incurred by them over the past four years.
The case came back before the courts last week where Beaumont Hospital agreed at last to return the property to its rightful owners.
They have now given a commitment that the Irish Kidney Association will have the building back by the end of this month more than four years after it was temporarily “borrowed” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The use of the building was only ever intended to be temporary and efforts by Beaumont Hospital to buy the facility failed “due to irreconcilable differences regarding the valuation of the property.”
In a letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly in January, Beaumont said they had apologised in writing and in person to the IKA over the failure to return it.
The letter said: “It is important to highlight that the hospital has arranged alternative hotel accommodation for patient relatives, at its own expense, within ten minutes of [Beaumont].
“[This] represents a significant upgrade in the quality and standard of lodgings relative to those which have been provided in the IKA Support Unit.”
Mr Donnelly responded to say he was “most concerned” that a small charity was being treated this way by the hospital.
He wrote: “It is disturbing that the Irish Kidney Association felt it had no option but to go to court to find a resolution.”
However, it is understood that the Minister for Health was not in position to force Beaumont to hand back the property.
Asked about their involvement in the case, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health said they had no further comment to make.
“[We note] that Beaumont Hospital, on foot of successful negotiation, has provided a commitment to the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) and the Circuit Court to deliver vacant possession of the Support Centre by 31 October 2024.”
Beaumont Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.
