Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As set out in A White Paper to End Direct Provision and to Establish a New International Protection Support Service, my Department is currently working on implementing a new model of accommodation and supports for international protection applicants. Under the new model, an applicant for international protection will initially be accommodated in one of six new integration and reception centres. Accommodation in an integration and reception centre will be own-door for families and own-room for single people with specific supports for people with identified vulnerabilities. These centres will be newly built and operated by not-for-profit organisations on behalf of the State. Residents will remain in the centres for a maximum of four months during which they will undergo a programme of orientation, support and integration. Once the four-month programme is complete, if the applicant has not received a positive first-instance decision on his or her application or is undergoing an appeal process, he or she will transition from an integration and reception centre to accommodation in the community. A local authority allocation has been developed to determine the relative proportion of international protection applicants to be accommodated in each local authority area under the new model. As the White Paper is rolled out, efforts will be made to accommodate families close to communities to which they may have ties. However, this is dependant on where phase 2 accommodation is available and where it is located. My Department cannot provide absolute guarantees on that point.

In the interim, a request for tender was issued by my Department seeking additional accommodation for applicants for international protection that enables families to be accommodated in independent living options. This tender is a key plank in the strategy to end the current reliance on emergency accommodation. The aim is to ensure that all families in the international protection process are accommodated in independent living options once they have completed the initial reception process. The accommodation tendered under this process is now beginning to come on stream.

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