Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The 2019 appropriation account for Vote 24 records gross expenditure of €540 million. This was an increase of €84 million, or nearly 19%, on the prior year.

The expenditure was distributed across five programmes. These are defined in terms of strategic objectives, such as: a safe and secure Ireland; and access to justice for all. Within the programmes, in addition to provision for standard administration functions, there are funding lines for key schemes and services operated directly as part of the Department, such as the Probation Service, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service and the Forensic Science Laboratory. Funding is also provided for a number of State bodies that have a separate statutory existence, that operate under the aegis of the Department.

The largest expenditure programme relates to the range of services that together aim to provide an efficient, responsive and fair immigration asylum and citizenship system. In 2019, the total spend for that programme was €223 million. This was up almost €62 million, or 38%, year-on-year. The largest component of this spending related to the cost of accommodation for asylum seekers, which totalled just under €130 million in 2019. The Department has attributed the 66% increase year-on-year in the spending on such accommodation to an increase in the numbers of asylum seekers accommodated, and to significantly greater reliance on more expensive emergency accommodation arrangements.

Members may wish to note that responsibility for asylum seekers’ accommodation, along with a number of other subheads, has now been transferred to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Processing of asylum applications remains the responsibility of the Department of Justice.

I issued a clear audit opinion on the appropriation account. However, I drew attention to disclosures in the statement on internal financial control relating to material instances of non-compliance with national procurement rules that occurred in respect of contracts that operated in 2019.