Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 February 2025
922. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number and total value of contracts to commercial providers of IPAS accommodation centres, by county, in the years 2022 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2423/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI thank the Deputy for the question.
Extensive efforts are underway, within this Department and as part of a whole-of-Government response, to source and bring into use suitable facilities to provide shelter and safety to international protection applicants.
Providing reception conditions – accommodation and other basic supports – to applicants 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.
The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) currently provides accommodation to almost 33,000 people at over 320 sites nationwide.
Contractual arrangements between the Department and external providers are considered commercially sensitive. To preserve the Department's negotiating position, the contracts and costs paid to providers are not published, as making this data available to other accommodation providers would not serve the public interest.
As such, I regret that the information requested can't be supplied in the format requested. However, 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/.
As part of these reports, the Deputy will find details of all payments from this Department over 20,000, with information on the payee, and whether the payment relates to international protection accommodation, or State-supported Ukraine accommodation.
IPAS also publishes weekly and monthly reports on gov.ie in relation to IP applicants. This includes a per county breakdown of where IP applicants are residing. These statistics are also published on gov.ie
www.gov.ie/en/publication/07027-ipas-statistics/.
