Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2024
202. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total cost of the provision of IPAS accommodation for each of the past five years; and the fees paid to the ten largest suppliers of services, construction and property in each of the past five years. [41679/24]
View answerOver recent years, Ireland, alongside many other EU Member States and other countries, has experienced a very significant increase in people seeking International Protection (IP).
The Government and this Department is making every effort to accommodate people seeking international protection against this backdrop of unprecedented demand. This is part of Irish and EU law and is also part of our humanitarian duty to provide shelter to people fleeing war and persecution in their home country.
At the moment, there are over 32,000 people accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) system,, of whom approximately 9,000 are children. At the end of August 2022, by comparison, our system was accommodating approximately 7,000 people.
The increase in costs over recent years aligns to the increased numbers of people needing accommodation. The below costs include all accommodation and related costs, including transport, facilities management and other related expenditure.
Please see, in tabular format, the costs for IPAS Accommodation for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 as of 11 October respectively:
|
Year |
Total Spend |
|
2020 |
€183,215,000 |
|
2021 |
€190,855,653.80 |
|
2022 |
€353,758,433.24 |
|
2023 |
€651,713,647.33 |
|
2024 |
€748,870,389.68 |
Contractual arrangements between the Department and external providers are considered commercially sensitive. In order to preserve the Department's negotiating position, the costs paid to providers are not published, as making this data available to other accommodation providers would not serve the public interest.
The Public Sector Reform Plan requires that government departments and agencies publish online reports detailing Purchase Orders (PO) relating to payments for goods, services or works procured to a value greater than €20,000. These are published, once per quarter, on gov.ie
(www.gov.ie/en/collection/dfdadb-department-of-children-and-youth-affairs-purchase-orders-for-20000-o/)
The Department does not provide a further breakdown of these payments at this time.
