The kitchen at the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre where meals are at fixed
times. Residents are not allowed to prepare their own food for themselves or their children. Picture: Richard Mills

THE State has spent €57 million on accommodating asylum seekers in a 12-year period in four Cork centres.
Figures released to the Evening Echo under the Freedom of Information Act showed that €21.6 million was paid to Millstreet Equestrian Services Ltd for accommodation and associated services including food and laundry at the former Drishane Castle between October 2000 and July 2012.
Barlow Properties received a total of €12.5 million for operating the direct provision centre at Ashbourne House in Glounthaune between June 2000 and January 2012.
The operators of Clonakilty Lodge centre, Alliance Leisure Limited, had contracts totalling €11.47 million in value.
And the Glenvera accommodation centre has been operated by Alan Hyde and Ted Murphy from December 2001 to March 2012 for contracts totalling €11.3 million.
The Department of Justice and Equality did not supply the value of the contracts for the four facilities for 2013 and 2014.
Neither were records supplied for the purpose-built Kinsale Road centre, which accommodates 245 residents.
The application for details on the cost of running that facility were denied on the grounds that the tender for its operation expires in June.