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A SINN FÉIN Senator has said it is “scandalous” that the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has “become a major landlord in the Dublin 4 area”.
Chris Andrews made the remarks in the Seanad this afternoon and referenced reporting in the Sunday Independent that the IRFU has become a landlord under a trust company and is renting out a two-bed home for up for €6,500 a month.
The Sunday Independent found the IRFU’s property holdings owns 26 properties across Dublin, nine of which were purchased in the last three years at an estimated cost of over €7.5m.
Some 23 of these properties are in Dublin 4, close to the Aviva Stadium, and at least nine properties owned by the IRFU in Dublin 4 are registered with the Residential Tenancies Board for renting.
Andrews said the IRFU has “been steadily acquiring rental properties near the Aviva Stadium and renting them out at extortionate rates”.
He added: “This property portfolio is valued at €30 million, despite the organisation declaring a budget deficit of €18 million according to its most recent accounts.”
He said that for a “body that receives considerable state funding, it is highly questionable that millions would be spent acquiring high-value real estate while at the same time making cuts to operations for the sake of financial sustainability”.
Andrews noted that the IRFU recently announced that it would discontinue its men’s Sevens programme as part of a plan to ensure financial sustainability.
He said this team was “cut and it doesn’t seem to have been overly questioned”.
Andrews added that the IRFU, like all organisations that use the Aviva Stadium, “has a responsibility to the local community to be a good neighbour”.
He called for “clarity” from the IRFU and the Sports Minister Patrick O’Donovan to “ensure residents in the area and the IRFU’s own tenants are not being taken advantage of, and to ensure taxpayer funding is being used wisely and with responsibility.”
Andrews also said that when funding is allocated to the IRFU, it is “done with the understanding that it will be used to support the development of sport at grassroots level, as well as to enable it to succeed at the highest international stage”.
“It is not done to allow rugby to satisfy its desire to be a landlord,” he added.
Andrews concluded by remarking that the “IRFU should be focused on rugby, not squeezing rent out of residents”.
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