All 313 IPAS accommodation centres are subject to routine inspections and compliance checks, either by Department officials, by HIQA, or through IPAS-commissioned inspections. These inspections are fully transparent and published online regularly.
The Department is reviewing contracts and improving overall governance and compliance across the IPAS accommodation system, and as part of this, numbers of inspections commissioned by the Department increased significantly in 2025.
The European Communities (Reception Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 commenced in early 2024 and provide for the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to conduct inspections of certain accommodation centres contracted by the Department.
48 IPAS accommodation centres were inspected by HIQA in 2024, and to date in 2025, 31 reports for IPAS accommodation centres inspection reports have been published. Inspection reports by HIQA can be viewed on www.hiqa.ie. These centres accommodate approximately 6,500 residents.
www.hiqa.ie/reports-and-publications/inspection-reports
In addition to HIQA's inspections of permanent centres, IPAS carries out inspections of emergency accommodation centres. These centres are primarily those who were brought into operation during a significant surge in applications from 2022 to 2024.
Emergency centres operate under shorter-term contracts, often of 2-years' duration, to allow for flexibility and fluctuations in demand. The Department does not use designations such as temporary or contingency as outlined in the question.
In 2025, there were 420 inspections completed by the Department, comparing with 268 in 2024. Inspections covered 291 separate properties and related to centres that accommodate approximately 26,500 residents. 229 of these inspections were carried out by Department officials and 191 by an inspector commissioned by the Department.
Reports of IPAS inspections are available online at:
www.gov.ie/en/international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas/publications/ipas-inspection-reports/
Where any centre has areas of partial or non-compliance identified during an inspection, a bespoke compliance plan is agreed and outlined in the inspection report, noting the specific and time-bound measures which will be taken in order to ensure full compliance with the National Standards.
IPAS publishes regular statistics in relation to international protection accommodation. This includes an overview of the types of accommodation used for accommodation international protection applicants and the numbers of people accommodated in each county.
These statistics are located at:
www.gov.ie/en/international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas/publications/facts-and-figures/
