New Dad and Independent election candidate for Dublin Bay South, Nick Delehanty, has described the tax situation for certain asylum centre owners in Ireland as "wild."
Mr Delehanty appeared on the All Talks podcast this week where he began by describing his background in the run up to Friday's election.
"We have been building now with 4 or 5 days out we just hope we have done enough.
"I have 10 years of legal experience and I am trying to use that to do good for Ireland," he said.
"We need to create a pathway for other people to get involved in politics in the future. We used to have our best and brightest involved.
"We need to start focusing back on public life.
"We run a pet day care centre in Dublin, Barclay's Doggie Daycare. I want to keep my staff as happy as possible and I don't micro-manage.
"During my legal career, I realised I didn't agree with Government policy of inviting in vulture funds after the crash.
"That was a moment in time, these cuckoo funds coming in (and buying up houses).
"This was around 2018 and during Covid I went into depth on the subject, the final straw was these same funds now operating asylum centres. Citywest is the biggest and its now owned by the same structure as a vulture fund or cuckoo fund."
Mr Delehunty described the huge amounts of money being made from people over seeing Ireland's immigration system.
"These are controversial enterprises. Resources are being taken up, these entities that own all this are making 60-70 pc profit margins. They are not contributing, the fact they are not paying tax on this is wild.
"It should be a national outcry we should be marching on this. The traditional left parties failed to call this out and maybe don't understand what is happening.
"There are structures making hundreds of millions off of this, if not billions. I am sticking up for the Irish tax payer."
Mr Delehanty was asked what he would do if he was in charge of Ireland.
"If you are Taoiseach for a day, number one thing to do is stop the flow which is making things worse," he said.
"We need a Danish style approach with stricter rules.
"They protect their country better than us. The numbers are just going to grow unless we do something, our services are maxed up. We have got to be responsible.
"You must make difficult decisions if you are running a country.
"Ireland is not sustainable if you keep bringing more and more people in."
The young politician also spoke about his disillusionment at the current state of the opposition, how to fix the country and the reporting of crime, or lack thereof.
"If you commit a crime you should be deported. If you are applying for Ireland to take care of you as an asylum seeker and you commit a crime, you are breaking the relationship.
"We are totally blind to all that and not releasing the data of what crimes are being committed and by who.
"In Denmark all that data is laid out online, which is intellectual honesty.
"I have devoted all my time to this, you need to be financially independent to do this. And you need will power. It's not easy.
"I don't believe in the way the (main parties) are going, if I was to join one I would have to shut up. Join the queue and shut up. I don't believe in the leadership.
"There is a huge divide in the city among the people who the system is benefiting those who it's not. It's a microcosm of the whole country.
"The need for social housing has been hammered home, we need it quickly. It's all political will power.
"We need a 20 pc reduction on the list of protected structures. It's also very difficult to demolish a building in Dublin now due to climate change. What? The carbon? Who is deciding this. Shut up with your virtue signalling nonsense. We want to make Irish people's lives better right now. What we do with a building here does not matter on a global sense.
"We have an attack on cars. People need their cars to get around, let's be real.
"We've allowed the people to enter politics to be from these ideological bases of de-growth; eco socialism.
"They don't want to ruin Ireland's skyline by building up. More people need to live in town, you have to build up.
"Fix the social housing and then we can do all this. Parts of Dublin are just being completely left behind.
"I think Michael McNamara would make the best Taoiseach for Ireland. If he set up a political party, I would follow him. He is articulate on Government over-reach. He was the best voice in the Dail, in my view. He's an MEP now but I hope to fill his voice if I get in. Hold the Government to account. There's a lack of people holding the Government to account."
Fine Gaels's Neil Richmond has since appeared on the All Walks podcast and described the 'vulture fund style' ownership situation of Citywest as "not accurate and viewing into slight conspiracy theory," but admitted "they are making money out of this."
In 2024, Citywest turned over 100m from State contracts.
"This highlights how differently Fine Gael views and thinks about what's happening in Ireland," Mr Delehanty responded on social media.
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