Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

3. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if, following the issues identified in the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding the management of international protection accommodation contracts, he will initiate a full and thorough look back review into the way in which public money has been spent on IPAS accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54196/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report contains a chapter on asylum accommodation that details a litany of issues in respect of the management of contracts for IPAS accommodation. As the Minister of State will know, the State is due to spent approximately €1.2 billion on such accommodation this year.

The report is what I would call a damning indictment in terms of due diligence and cost controls. Will the Government now initiate a thorough review of how public money has been spent on IPAS accommodation?

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is taking action across all aspects of international protection accommodation to ensure we improve value for money, strengthen governance and compliance, and renegotiate contracts with providers. This forms part of the overall reform of the international protection system that is already working to speed up the processing of applications and move away from commercial provision to more State-owned accommodation. This reform will help to drive down costs. The Minister and I are absolutely committed to driving down the costs in this area.

My Department took over responsibility for international protection accommodation from 1 May last and has worked closely with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General on carrying out an extensive review of costs and processes within the international protection accommodation system. This was published last week as part of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2024. All recommendations in the report have been accepted and implemented by the Department, with one recommendation to be implemented in 2026.

The report examined overall processes and sampled 20 IPAS contracts. It acknowledges the extensive challenges posed to the State to source accommodation during what was an unprecedented period, namely from 2022 to 2024. During this period, over 45,000 additional international protection applicants arrived in Ireland. Prior to this, a typical three-year period would have seen close to 8,000 or 9,000. Today’s standards of pre-contract assessment and negotiation could not be applied to accommodation between 2022 and 2024, basically because of the pace at which people were arriving.

While applications this year have, thankfully, reduced, they remain high compared with pre-2022 norms. This has given sufficient space to put in place greater controls over the IPAS accommodation portfolio. We have put a range of updated and strengthened systems and procedures in place and these are already beginning to have a genuine impact.

IPAS has put improved processes in place for appraisal, validation, contracting and payments. A new rate-card pricing structure is being applied to all new or renewing contracts, which has resulted in savings of over €52 million across 104 contracts since May of this year.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

That was a long way of saying the Government does not plan to carry out a full review of every single contract. A full review is required. As the Minister of State rightly said, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report deals only with a sample of contracts. From this, it has found that pre-contract due diligence records were significantly incomplete. In more than a third of the cases examined, invoice rates were not clear and could not be verified as signed contracts were not available. There was clear evidence of substantial overcharging in some instances, and the pre-payment checklist used by IPAS did not include a check to verify the correct capacity or occupancy.

The Minister of State cannot simply argue we will be doing what is required in the future and that we were under pressure in the past. This is about a substantial amount of public money, taxpayers’ money. It has enriched a very small number of individuals and companies to the tune of millions of euro and in the process caused tension and anger across communities. As a result of the damning findings in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, is anybody going to be held accountable? The only way somebody can be held accountable is if every single contract is examined for flaws. Without that, the public can have no confidence that there will be any transparency.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

To outline the position again, we have accepted the recommendations in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report. We absolutely recognise them. We have put in place contract reviews designed to deliver genuine savings. We recognise that due to the surge that took place from 2022 to 2024, we were not in a position to have the relevant structures in place, but we now are and we are actually delivering genuine savings.

The most important point related to this has two aspects: first, we must ensure that, going forward, we have the contracts in place delivering savings; and second, reflecting the position we have taken and on which we are absolutely focused, we must move where possible to having State-owned services that actually deliver substantial savings rather than having commercial providers. These two steps combined will deliver much better value for money in the system, which is what we all want to see. In partnership with doing that, we are also looking at all those contracts as they come up, with a view to putting in place a new contract rate card that also delivers savings.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

None of that is good enough. Every single week, we hear about another scandal in respect of an IPAS contract. Huge sums of money were paid to people with no track record and there is no explanation as to why this was the case. We do not get these revelations from the Minister of State’s Department, by the way; it is usually journalists who give us information that is in the public interest and that we as a House should have control over. Take, for example, the most recent issue, that of Ryevale House in County Kildare. We found out through the media that the company in question, which has secured a substantial IPAS contract, cannot even provide water. In fact, according to newspaper reports it is alleged the company is actually robbing public water from a fire hydrant. How does that happen? How do we have circumstances in which somebody named by CAB as potentially involved in gangland crime can get an IPAS contract? How do we allow a system that sees a company move from having a café making a profit of €2,000 to paying the directors almost €5 million in wages? We need to ask these questions. If experience tells us anything, it is that if we do not tackle the misuse of public funds at source, with full transparency, mistakes will be repeated time and again.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As I have said to the Deputy, all contracts we are now putting in place have checks and balances in respect of tax clearance certificates.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

How is the Ryevale House issue arising now?

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We are totally transparent in publishing details of all payments made, and we do that regularly. We believe the contracts we are now putting in place are absolutely clear and deliver on some of the things the Deputy is asking about.

I understand that, in the case the Deputy mentioned, the water provision issue has been completely addressed and what he described is not happening at this point. However, it is important that contractors provide their service in the correct and proper way to the State. Through the contracts we are putting in place now, we are determined to deliver in this regard.