Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
765. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the current maximum IPAS capacity; the maximum IPAS capacity in February 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6431/26]
View answer766. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the current IPAS occupancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6432/26]
View answer767. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if he plans to open more IPAS accommodation centres to accommodate all male applicants on arrival; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6433/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 765, 766 and 767 together.
The State is currently accommodating over 33,000 people in 312 International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres around the country. Over 9,500 of those residents are children living in IPAS accommodation with their family.
The Department manages a limited supply of accommodation, prioritising people with families or who have specific health needs or other vulnerabilities.
Entrances to and exits from the IPAS accommodation system are restricted due to pressure on suitable capacity for new arrivals, particularly single male applicants, and due to people who have completed their application process finding it hard to source accommodation outside the IPAS system.
At this time, IPAS cannot make offers of accommodation to all single male applicants on arrival, due to ongoing shortages of accommodation in this category.
While the demand for IPAS accommodation remains high, since last year, IPAS has been able to review the cases of people awaiting an offer of accommodation and make offers to those who have been waiting longest. This review has reduced the number of unaccommodated people from over 3,500 in March 2025, to 453 today. IPAS will continue to review these cases and make offers, depending on available accommodation options.
Since 2025, the IPAS system is working toward a goal of having 15% of beds available at any given time. This is a European Union good practice measure, to ensure efficient operations and allow for the daily and weekly movement of new and existing residents, and forward planning. This model is similar to accommodation models in other countries, and in sectors like healthcare and hospitality, where accommodation requires daily management.
At the moment, IPAS is not meeting this goal, with only 9% of beds available for use. A breakdown of this available capacity by types of accommodation is provided below. IPAS will continue working towards the goal of 15% available capacity over the coming year.
|
Available capacity |
36,128 |
|
Residents |
32,648 |
|
Single male beds available |
600 |
|
Mixed accommodation beds available |
2,430 |
|
Family only beds available |
450 |
|
Total available beds (24/10/25) |
3,480 |
The type of accommodation capacity which is most limited is accommodation for single male applicants, which is limited to approximately 600 available beds. Beds for single males are prioritised for those who are most vulnerable on arrival, or for applicants who are rough-sleeping and referred to IPAS from dedicated outreach, carried out 7 days a week.
Ireland has adopted and is now working to implement the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum in mid-2026. Reforming and speeding up processing of applications should serve over time to reduce the scale of the demand for international protection accommodation, as was seen in recent years.
Developing more State-owned options will allow us to move away from the current degree of reliance on commercial provision. While commissioning emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be necessary in the short to medium term, it is being contracted on a short-term basis, which will enable the State to decommission this capacity with agility as contracts expire or demand fluctuates.
IPAS publishes weekly statistics in relation to international protection applicants accommodated by IPAS. This includes statistics on the number of IPAS residents currently and in preceding years.
These statistics are located on the Gov.ie website: [(www.gov.ie/en/international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas/publications/facts-and-figures/]).
