An unused refugee centre in Co Cork has cost the taxpayer over €2 million.
The Department of Justice bought Lynch's Lodge Hotel in Macroom, Co Cork, in October 2000 to use as a refugee accommodation centre for over €3.5 million.
Five years later, with security and other costs at over €800,000, the property was sold for €2.3 million.
The information came from a parliamentary answer given by Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works Tom Parlon.
The hotel was originally purchased as an integration centre to house asylum seekers, but the local authorities refused to give the Department planning permission to use the hotel for that purpose.
Fine Gael's Justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe, who raised the issue in the Dáil, called it an "extraordinary waste of taxpayers' money".
He said: "I have to question the wisdom of selling the property at such a huge loss, even if the State was having to pay for security".
"Only this Government would be able to lose money on a valuable property during a period of unprecedented property growth in which prices have more than doubled," Mr O'Keeffe added.