Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)

It has been clear for quite some time that this Government has been mismanaging the entire IPAS process and accommodation. Concerns raised by the Opposition and civil society groups have been dismissed by this Government. It has buried its head in the sand, stating how much it is spending to fix the problem, which only continually gets worse. It is solely responsible for the mess and it will not be remedied under this Government, which makes statements in the press but then takes a hands-off or do-nothing approach. Recent comments by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste show they are taking no responsibility for their own failures in relation to migration. Because of the failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government, our migration and international protection system is a mess and is operating in crisis mode. Every stroke of the pen takes too long, from decisions to appeals to deportations. Worse, there is massive profiteering in the provision of inappropriate IPAS accommodation.

The review by the Comptroller and Auditor General of the management of international protection accommodation is a damning indictment of the Government's failures to address profiteering and cost overruns. The Government should not be able to dismiss the C and AG's review but I have no doubt it will do its best to ignore it. The review is damning about a lack of due diligence and payment controls in the awarding of IPAS contracts, which the State is due to spend €1.2 billion on this year alone. The Irish taxpayer deserves better.

Following the despicable arson attack on the IPAS accommodation in my hometown of Drogheda, the Government ordered a security review of all IPAS accommodation. General security in emergency details is already part of the IPPS inspection checklist to ensure the occupants are safe. From what I have witnessed, this is not the case. I refer the Minister to the fact I outlined to the House yesterday, where one of those families in Drogheda had no way out of the burning building except via stairs that were ravaged with flames. When we checked the inspections, we saw that few inspections have been published for 2025. In fact, only two have been published for County Louth for this year as the year draws to a close. Will the Minister tell me why this is the case? Is there a lack of inspectors or are issues that require remediation arising that we are not hearing about? Similarly, there is no inspection report for the D Hotel in Drogheda. The last review, in 2024, counted only 89 occupants despite the hotel having capacity for over 500. This was the only hotel in the largest town in this country and it was ripped out of the tourism and hospitality sector. I call on the Minister to publish the 2025 reports for all IPAS accommodation in County Louth immediately. If he cannot do that, he must make a statement to this House to explain why.

Following recent events, the people of this State, County Louth and indeed Drogheda need to be certain that those operating IPAS accommodation centres have been awarded contracts appropriately and based on merit, providing value for money and in areas that can accommodate them. The people of this State and more importantly those in IPAS accommodation deserve a system that is fair, efficient and enforced. It is time to stop prioritising profiteering.

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