02/09/2026
An incident occurred at our hotel last night that has generated a number of comments across social media. We wish to address this matter directly and holistically. We understand this is a long post, but bear with us!
As a warning, this post addresses the topic of homelessness. We understand this is a sensitive, deeply painful topic that evokes strong emotions. Consequently, we have received a number of aggressive comments as certain public figures look to twist these events for political leverage and obscure their own shortcomings as elected representatives.
Since 2010, Ireland has experienced the worst homelessness crisis in the state’s history. With over 17,000 people (including over 5,500 children) currently in emergency or temporary accommodation this remains a major systemic failure by those responsible for governing our country. These figures don’t even include those sleeping rough on our streets.
Over this period, local authorities (particularly Dublin City Council and Kildare County Council) have increasingly adopted a policy of using hotels as a band-aid solution to hide this crisis from public view.
We strongly oppose this policy for three reasons:
1. Hotels are not homes: Standard hotel rooms lack dedicated cooking and living facilities, forcing vulnerable families to rely on kettles, microwaves, or takeaways. We ourselves here at Lucan Spa Hotel have small family rooms that would be difficult to support a family for more than a few days.
2. It is a short-term fix for a long-term issue: Using hotels as temporary housing fails to provide the long-term vision that vulnerable individuals require.
3. Profiting from a crisis is wrong: As a matter of principle, we refuse to accept government payments to profit from a national emergency. Accepting public funds for emergency accommodation while criticizing government failure in this area would be hypocritical.
It has long been our policy not to participate in emergency accommodation schemes. We believe that relying on hotels simply relieves pressure on authorities to build real, long-term solutions such as purpose-built facilities staffed with necessary medical and mental health professionals. Instead, emergency housing has become a lucrative industry for commercial properties charging maximum rates to local councils. We refuse to be profiteers of a systemic crisis (Nick Delehanty actually did a deep-dive last year into the properties and hotels that have benefitted the most financially from the homeless crisis).
This includes the emigration crisis and the Ipas system – we have never and will never engage in such processes (despite some comments on this from Facebook Dads).
Adopting this principled stance unfortunately leaves us open to individual high-pressure situations and unfair claims of "not caring." Every case of homelessness is heartbreaking, and last night presented one of these difficult situations.
Cllr Glen Moore contacted our hotel to book a room under an emergency arrangement. When our staff politely explained our policy, he became irate, accused us of discrimination and threatened to use his public platform to damage our business.
Harassing and threatening a female receptionist working late at night in a small, family-owned Irish business (simply for upholding a long-standing corporate policy) is unacceptable behaviour for an elected representative.
No doubt some will comment suggesting we should have waived our policy "just this once." It would be easy to turn a blind eye and accept an emergency booking to avoid confrontation. But that is precisely how this cycle continues and precisely how local representatives have managed to sweep a national crisis under the rug rather than address their own failures.
To Cllr Glen Moore: You were elected promising to challenge the system. Why, then, rely on the same flawed, short-term emergency hotel policies as your predecessors? Pointing fingers at small family businesses will not solve the structural issues you were elected to address. We welcome a public update on the concrete proposals and long-term housing solutions you have put forward during your tenure to end reliance on hotel rooms.
We remain committed to our policy, our staff's safety, and supporting genuine, long-term solutions to Ireland’s housing crisis. I’m sure that there are some people that disagree with our stance and that is perfectly fine (you can’t please all the people all the time). But we draw the line on sending vulgar messages and shouting down at a young receptionist on the telephone. That stance is unacceptable and we would encourage those engaging like this to take a long look at themselves.
