Remember the Govt’s White Paper to end Direct Provision? It promised asylum seekers their own front door.
The reality is that millions have been paid to an Isle of Man🇮🇲controlled company to buy up portfolios of houses for itself & lease them back to the State...🧵
Background
In 2021 Roderic O'Gorman launched a new strategy to end direct provision whereby asylum seekers would be given with their own houses....
One company saw a major opportunity - "Dídean Dochas Eireann Teoranta"
They launched a lobbying campaign of top Ministers, TDs & Senior Civil Servants to set out their plan..
They even had a one on one with An Taoiseach Micheál Martin👀
What is Didean?
Their goal is to end direct provision by providing a white-glove service to people seeking asylum.
The provide houses, school places, doctors, medical cards etc.
THEY ARE NOT A CHARITY OR NGO.
Who?
Ed Dunne is the brains behind this. He founded Nua Healthcare which sold for ~tens/hundreds of millions in 2020.
Very Smart guy.
Seems to genuinely want to do good... check him out on this pod for yourself.
Since 2022 Didean has been busy buying up properties around the midlands - Laois, Offally, Carlow, Limerick, Westmeath and beyond.
By end of 2023, their property portfolio was worth €7.5million and rising fast.
A quick look at planning lists and Section 5 Exemptions shows that they are acquiring scores of houses in clusters in estates and towns.
They use a classic “debt push-down” structure.
1. Foscadh Ltd (Isle of Man)
2. Didean Investments (Irish Holdco)
3. Didean Dochas (Irish OpCo/State contracts)
Isle of Man co loads Irish co with debt
Then uses State income to repay that debt, tax-free to
extract profit offshore
By 2023, it had:
✅ €12.4M in turnover
✅ €7.5M in houses
✅ €15.7M loan from Isle of Man parent
✅ €21.5M in rent commitments
All funded by the State.
BUT REMEMBER THE STATE DOESN'T OWN THESE PROPERTIES!
They Company now owns €7.5M worth of property & have lucrative leases with “related parties.”
In other words: they rent homes from themselves!
Along with paying themselves €409K director salaries & €1.35M in "management fees".
In 2023, Didean borrowed €15.7M from its Isle of Man parent.
Those repayments are not taxed in Ireland
Is this BEPS in action? (base erosion and profit shifting)
Why this matters
This is a highly aggressive financial structure under the guise of asylum housing.
Lets just compare this to a normal Approved Housing Body... its actually nuts
Just read this 👇🏻
Opinion
This company lobbied the most senior politicians and civil servants in Ireland.
Did no one ask the obvious question:
“How is this being financed?" or "Who is making money?”
Or worse, did they know about the offshore structure and wave it through anyway?
This company is now competing directly against Irish first-time buyers, snapping up homes in commuter towns across the midlands....using State money, an offshore tax structure to house asylum seekers.
In under two years, they’ve built a private residential portfolio now worth €7.5 million....There are no obvious limits stopping this company getting to a portfolio of €100 million.
Yes, ending Direct Provision is a legitimate goal. But we are living in fantasy land if we think this type of own-door scheme can scale.
And let’s be honest:
If these people truly had a social conscience, they wouldn’t be routing millions through the Isle of Man to dodge Irish tax on grotesque profits made from State-funded housing.
This is a hill I will die on.
If you want to support my deep dive efforts, please do 🙏 🇮🇪
buy.stripe.com/3cs02d7kX2Sm6M…
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