A tourist hostel in Galway City centre is to be used to accommodate 50 refugees.

The International Protection applicants will be accommodated in 15 ensuite bedrooms of the Savoy Hostel on Eglinton Street, opposite the main city post office.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth also confirmed that Waterloo House, a former B&B in Clifden, will provide 58 beds for people seeking refuge in Ireland in two phases.

In both cases, the Department said the accommodation “will be for families of international protection applicants”.

Maplestar Limited own the Savoy Hostel and have been providing accommodation to IPAS “for over 20 years at a number of centres under contract to the Department”.

Maplestar was the provider of the Eglinton Direct Provision centre in Salthill. According to Dáil records, it was also providing emergency accommodation last year at the Sentinel Building in Ballymun, Dublin.

According to its 2022 financial statement, the parent company of Maplestar Ltd was Foxfield Inns, owned by members of the well-known Galway Flannery family.

Pictured: The Savoy Hostel on Eglinton Street, which will house 50 International Protection applicants.