THE private firm that is closing the largest direct provision centre in the capital was paid €27.5 million by the State over 11 years, new figures show.

Fazyard Ltd, which runs Clondalkin Towers Hotel, announced this month the centre would close on December 3.

The centre has 248 residents including 91 children. Sixty five of the total have leave to remain in Ireland and are now facing homelessness.

In response to a written Dail question by Sinn Fein’s Eoin O Broin, Minister for State David Stanton confirmed that the operator has been paid €27.5m between 2006 and 2015.

Fazyard Ltd is led by Sean Lyons and son Sean Lyons Jnr. Their firms, including Fazyard Ltd and Old George Ltd, also received payments totalling €4.14m in 2017.

This was for providing accommodation for around 500 asylum seekers at Clondalkin Towers and Emo, Co Laois. The two companies also received payments from the State totalling €6m for accommodating asylum seekers in 2016.

In his written reply to Mr O Broin, Minister Stanton said that “discussions between the contractor and officials from the Department are on-going with the welfare of the residents at the centre of those discussions”.

The most recent accounts for Fazyard show that the business was sitting on accumulated profits of €4.2m at the end of November 2016. The firm’s cash pile increased from €187,703 to €540,304. Numbers employed by the company total 37.

Minister Stanton confirmed that a tender has been advertised for a new direct provision centre 40km within Newbridge and pointed out that Clonadalkin is in that range. Closing date for the tender is October 17.

CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, Nick Henderson described the closure as “very, very bad news” and said the timing would cause huge distress to families particularly coming as it does before the end of the school term.