Healy-Rae company linked to refugee accommodation records bumper post-tax profits

Gordon Deegan

A property management firm linked to Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae’s guesthouse accommodating Ukrainian refugees recorded bumper post-tax profits in 2023.

Mr Healy-Rae, the Independent TD for Kerry, was appointed earlier this year as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with special responsibility for forestry.

New s filed by Mr Healy-Rae’s Roughty Properties Ltd show it recorded a €465,860 post-tax profit during its first year in operation from May 9th, 2022, to May 31st, 2023.

The abridged s do not disclose revenues but they do show that at the end of May 2023, the company’s cash funds totalled €555,933.

The overdue s were filed after a district court order dated May 13th this year extended time in which the annual return could be lodged with the Companies Office.

The annual return shows that Mr Healy-Rae owns 100 per cent of the share capital of the company. The Kerry TD's entry in the Dáil of ' Interests state that the main activity of Roughty Properties Ltd is "management of rental properties".

In the , Mr Healy-Rae describes himself as an owner of rental properties and his entry lists 17 separate properties for letting including 14 houses.

Separate figures published by the Department of Integration show that Mr Healy-Rae’s Rosemont House in Tralee has received €1.22 million over two years and three months to the end of December last year.

In 2022, Kerry County Council refused planning permission to Mr Healy-Rae’s Roughty Properties Ltd's planning application for a three-storey extension to expand guest capacity at Rosemont Guest House.

The new s confirm that the Roughty property firm is now Mr Healy-Rae’s most profitable enterprise.

Separate s filed earlier this year by Mr Healy-Rae’s plant hire firm, Roughty Plant Hire Ltd, show that its accumulated profits increased by €74,887 from €734,024 to €808,911 in the 12 months to the end of April 2024.

The post-tax €74,887 profit at the plant hire services business for the 12 months was an 80 per cent increase on the €41,415 post tax profit for the prior 12 months.

During the 12 months the company’s cash funds more than doubled from €198,748 to €434,224.

Numbers employed at the Kilgarvan based business during the year declined from 12 to five.

Separate s for another Michael Healy-Rae firm, which operates a fuel station and grocery shop in Kilgarvan, show it recorded post-tax losses of €26,986 last year.

s for Black Cap & Company Ltd show that the firm recorded the post-tax losses of €26,986 in the 12 months to the end of April 2024 are down sharply on the post-tax losses of €67,583 in the prior year.

Last year, numbers employed by the business declined by one to 15, including directors. The company operates from a building housing a shop at Kilgarvan village.

Mr Healy-Rae’s entry to the Dáil’s ’ of interests lists his other occupations as postmaster, farmer, service station owner and owner of rental properties. The Kerry deputy also has shares in the New York Times and owns 146 acres of farmland/forestry.