Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Chairman and committee members for inviting me in.

Since becoming Minister, I have taken steps to ensure that the international protection process is robust, that our rules are enforced and that the process is managed as efficiently and effectively as possible. As the Chairman knows, the right to claim asylum is an important principle of international law dating back to 1951. To protect that system for the very people who need it – those fleeing war and persecution – it has to work. My central policy objective is to speed up the decision-making process. Faster decisions will allow those who need our protection the ability to get on with their lives rather than waiting in limbo. It also means those who are not entitled to protection leave the country much sooner. It also sends a clear message that applying for international protection is not a back door to our thriving labour market. We already have a system in place whereby people can apply for work permits and visas. My Department received over 200,000 applications for visas last year with over 150,000 being granted.

This committee is particularly interested in the amount of public money that is being spent on providing accommodation for asylum seekers and we will, no doubt, discuss issues concerning accommodation providers and the terms of contracts. However, I emphasise from the outset that the biggest driver of expenditure for asylum accommodation is the number of people coming into the country seeking international protection. Prior to the pandemic, there were typically 3,000 to 5,000 applications for international protection in Ireland each year. In 2016, there were 2,200; in 2017 there were 2,900; in 2018 there were 3,600; and in 2019 there were 4,700. In the Covid years, it declined to 1,500 and 2,600 in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Between 2022 and 2024, this pattern changed quickly and substantially, with a surge in the numbers arriving rising to over 13,500 in both 2022 and 2023, and 18,500 in 2024. At the same time, over 114,000 people arrived in Ireland fleeing the war in Ukraine. Consequently, a total of 159,000 people arrived in Ireland claiming temporary protection or international protection in that three-year period from 2022 to 2024.

These numbers created a crisis. They threatened to overwhelm the ability of the International Protection Office to process cases and placed the State in a very weak negotiating position as it needed to dramatically expand the accommodation available to both international protection applicants and Ukrainian citizens. In order to respond to this crisis situation, the State invested in hiring more staff to process the applications. I will continue to invest across end-to-end processing with additional staff. In 2019, there were 143 people working in the International Protection Office. Today, there are 620. That is an increase of 334%.

As well as staffing, over the past few years, there has also been investment in ICT capital expenditure and many process improvements. This is producing results. In 2024, the International Protection Office delivered over 14,000 first-instance decisions compared with 8,500 in 2023. Already this year, the office has produced 13,800 decisions. The International Protection Appeals Tribunal closed around 3,100 appeals in 2024 compared with over 1,700 in 2023. To date, it has already produced 4,100 in 2025. My overall strategy for the international protection process, aimed at making more and faster decisions, is working. From the beginning of my tenure as Minister, applications for asylum have decreased by 40%.

Before I talk about accommodation matters, I want to comment on the end of the application process. Once a person receives a positive decision on their international application, Ireland is their new home and we will give them all the help and support they need to integrate into our society. For people whose applications have been carefully assessed and who have been deemed not to need our protection, another process commences. In other words, they must leave the country. They can do so voluntarily, and my Department runs a voluntary returns programme to help make this process as smooth as possible for them. If they choose not to leave voluntarily, however, they will be forced to leave. We must hold firm on this principle because deportations are an essential part of any immigration system. More than double the number of deportation orders have been signed this year compared with those signed in the same period last year - 3,029 compared with 1,400.

As stated, I derive no pleasure from deporting people, but it is the right thing to do. Some members of this committee and other Members of the Oireachtas dislike deportations and accuse me of a lack of compassion. I would like to point out that the Assistant High Commissioner of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated recently that the deportation of migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected after going through a comprehensive and effective process should be actively encouraged to maintain the integrity of a country's asylum system. I welcome the fact that the assistant high commissioner is quoted as stating something I have repeatedly stated, namely that there is no point in having an asylum process to determine who is in need of international protection if, at the end of the process, the people who were rejected are allowed to remain in the country. I want the public to know that, in the context of asylum, I am applying a rules-based system. Those rules are based on the laws enacted by the Oireachtas, in particular the International Protection Act. If people are not happy with my approach, they should seek to change the rules by changing the law. It is open to every Member of the Oireachtas to put forward amending legislation if they are unhappy with the rules applied.

As members know, my Department now has responsibility for all aspects of the international protection process, including sourcing and providing accommodation for people applying for international protection and for people fleeing the war in Ukraine. As mentioned, over 45,000 people arrived and applied for international protection during 2022, 2023 and 2024, almost matching the total number of applications made during the previous 16 years. This coincided with the invasion of Ukraine, when more than 114,000 people fleeing that conflict arrived in Ireland. Ireland has at all times endeavoured to provide accommodation and other basic supports to people seeking international protection as required under the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018, which implement in Irish law the EU directive passed by the Parliament in 2013. That unprecedented surge in applications for international protection since early 2022, alongside the arrivals from Ukraine, meant that the accommodation system had to grow very significantly under immense pressure over a relatively short period.

That put the State in a very weak negotiating position due to the huge need and limited supply. People were camped on the streets in tents. The State desperately sought further accommodation or just sites on which to place tents from all sources. I am told that it had to accept almost every offer of accommodation received. What are now viewed as appropriate pre-contract assessments and negotiations did not apply because the State had to move at pace. It was a market that suited accommodation providers and, consequently, contract terms were agreed that would not be considered in today’s changed climate. Overall, capacity in the international protection and Ukraine accommodation system had to extend to cover up to an additional 80,000 people during that surge period. Now, the number of people from Ukraine in State accommodation has dropped and the number of international protection applications has reduced.

At the same time, processing of those applications is getting faster and we are regaining control of the system. When I became Minister for Justice, the number of unaccommodated international protection applicants stood at well over 3,000. Today, it is just over 600. As a general policy position when it comes to international protection accommodation, we need to move away from the emergency use of hotels to a more sustainable and cost-efficient State accommodation model. We are bringing huge focus on achieving improved value for money in terms of the very high costs of this system, as State-owned services offer much more favourable costs than commercial services. We are also looking at all the commercial contracts we have, negotiating savings on those contracts as we renew them and improving the systems and processes we follow to oversee compliance and standards across the system. Our current focus is on developing State-owned accommodation from a range of sources, building a sustainable system and reducing reliance on commercial providers over time. A more robust international protection system and the increase in application processing I outlined will allow us to ensure that the system is smaller and that people spend less time in it than in recent years.

I now want to look in more detail at the cost of this accommodation and at how accommodation is selected and overseen. The international protection accommodation service, IPAS, is managed by my Department. IPAS was formerly in Department of the former Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. It sources and funds accommodation and oversees resident allocation and welfare, standards and compliance. In 2024, just over €1 billion was spent on accommodating international protection applicants. This year, a budget of €1.2 billion has been allocated. These figures are unsustainable and must be brought down. Just under 90% of all accommodation is commercially sourced. However, we have now increased to almost 4,000 the number of State-owned beds with plans to increase this to 14,000. There were only 900 State-owned beds in July 2024 and we have now got that up to 4,000.

The accommodation system is demand-led and, as I have outlined, is sensitive to international crises, conflicts and migration trends. The State provides accommodation to nearly 33,000 people today in IPAS, 9,500 of whom are children. It is important to note that while we have a legal obligation to provide accommodation to international protection applicants, and the State can be sued for failing to provide same, when a person is granted status, they acquire much the same rights as Irish citizens do to housing. Therefore, they are not entitled to remain in accommodation designated for international protection. Yet, at present, regrettably, over 5,000 people who have been granted status remain in this accommodation. Many of these individuals are working but do not contribute to their accommodation costs. This is both inequitable and intolerable in circumstances where there remains a significant cohort of international protection applicants left unaccommodated. It is vital for the integrity of the system that the provision of accommodation is not abused in this manner and that the accommodation is available to those who have no rights to other housing supports.

There is extensive oversight of all aspects of the accommodation commissioning process. As we regain control of the system, these processes have been improving considerably. Given the intense pressure in recent years, the State was dependent on offers of commercial accommodation from external providers. We were not able in that period to implement significant policy control over the location of accommodation or negotiate accommodation solutions at appropriate prices. Now,all offers of accommodation are appraised within my Department by a dedicated team. The factors considered include a site and its potential, value for money for the State, due diligence regarding the provider and planning and regulatory matters. Consideration is also given to the location with regard to access to services and the health and well-being of residents.

There is a strong commitment on the part of the Government and my Department to the continuous improvement of this oversight. We are reviewing contracts and seeing notable improvement in standards, governance and compliance. The introduction of a new rate card model is driving costs down for new and renewed contracts, already saving over €46 million this year, and is applied to each contract as it comes up for renewal. In parallel, we are developing more State-owned accommodation from a range of sources, building our ability to reduce reliance on commercial providers. A key milestone was the recent purchase of Citywest, a move that, compared with the previous leasing model, will pay for itself in four years.

In one year alone, this purchase will save us €39 million in running costs. This is because the cost per person in a State-owned facility is approximately €12,000 per year compared with more than €33,000 per year in a commercial facility.

We have renovated other State accommodation and brought on stream modular solutions, all of which contributed to boosting State-owned bed numbers from 900 spaces in July 2024 to over 4,000 today. This change should also enable far greater control over dispersal patterns and enhanced engagement with local communities. The Government also wants to see the introduction of a contribution by working international protection applicants towards their accommodation costs. This will be aligned to similar systems across the EU, and aims to bring equity across Irish society in terms of contributing to accommodation costs.

All of this is in the context of improving the application system itself and speeding it up. This is the long-term priority, so that fewer people spend less time in IPAS accommodation and transition from that crisis response to a sustainable, fair and more efficient model. A rules-based and robust international protection system will give our people confidence in the operation of the immigration laws of our country. Ireland has gained much from and been enhanced by immigration. We need to seek to avoid the divisive and often toxic debate which has developed in other parts of the world on this topic. I look forward to questions from the Cathaoirleach and committee members.