Results 621-640 of 11,583 for speaker:Jim O'Callaghan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I will certainly look into that. Obviously if the local residents had sought engagement in respect of what was happening in Clonmel, there should have been engagement. My own experience in terms of Citywest, for example, is that there has been excellent engagement between officials in my Department, local representatives and the local community. In fairness to the civil servants in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: Of course.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank Deputy Murphy for updating me further on the very unpleasant experience that many of the Ukrainians in the modular homes in Clonmel appear to have had. I am very pleased that the superintendent there has been apprised of this, and I will be happy to engage with An Garda Síochána in respect of it. An issue we have not spoken about today but that, regrettably, has to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I know. God, they have enough already.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank Deputy Cahill. The first thing I want to say is I was slightly concerned when I heard him making a declaration. The Deputy's wife is not involved in any wrongdoing. She is perfectly entitled-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: Whatever. We need to be cautious. There is a legitimate point to be made that we need to cut down on expenditure and that the State needs to be much more careful in spending money. As I said, because of the surge and the crises in 2022, 2023 and 2024, contracts were entered into and we had to enter into them rapidly. People who provide accommodation and enter into contracts with the State...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I do not take it personally. It is a perfectly legitimate charge to say that a politician or Minister acts without compassion. I do not take that personally and I know the Deputy did not mean it in that way. On the deportation of children, I do not derive any pleasure from doing that. If I were to say that we will not deport children, it would put the State in an impossible position....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: In any IPAS centre I have been to, there is a mechanism in place whereby the residents can report wrongdoing or low standards and quality, such as issues in respect of food and hygiene within the centre. People do make complaints in respect of it, and they are entitled to. Similarly, if a person working there is concerned about the standards being provided, they also can provide that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I want to agree with the Deputy before I then go on to disagree with him. He is correct to say that the initial process for giving out contracts left a lot to be desired. In fairness to the then Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, who was responsible in 2022, 2023 and 2024, he was in a very difficult position.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I am told there are very few people here for three, four or five years. It is not like it was, say, ten years ago. I do not want to mislead the Deputy, and I take seriously what he is saying in terms of suggestions, but it is not a priority to which I am giving consideration.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: That is a very good point. I am sorry; that was one I missed. There are a small number of people in IPAS who have had deportation orders served on them. In terms of giving effect to those orders, they can be removed from the country. I changed the law in order that people can be detained not just for seven days but for 42. People who are the subject of deportation orders are not entitled...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: They are unaccommodated. There are 600 of them now and there were 3,000 of them last year. We do not know where they are but they are not in emergency accommodation. There is no emergency accommodation for homeless IPAS people as there is for people who are homeless and on the list. What we do, however, for people to whom we cannot offer accommodation is pay them a sum of €113.80...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: The problem is - I will use this as an example, and Deputy Cahill has spoken about Ukrainians but this can apply to IPAS centres as well - if there is a property that, say, has 100 people in it in one part of Kerry and there is another property, say, in Limerick that has 100 people, and if there is space in each one for another 50 or something like that, we need to amalgamate them. I refer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: I can indicate what the average rate is at present. Will I deal with the questions the Chair has raised first?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: The average is now €71 per person, per night. There were obviously figures above and below that. There was an economic evaluation service paper that indicated the average last year was higher than that. My officials say the average last year, 2024, was approximately €84 per person, per night. It is coming down; we have got it down to €71 per person, per night as the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: It ended a year and a half ago and I am informed that it was very rarely used.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration: International Protection Accommodation Service: Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (23 Sep 2025)

Jim O'Callaghan: As we are a European Union country, we have to permit any European Union company to bid for the contracts for IPAS. Any European Union company can bid for it.