Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Ó Clochartaigh for raising this issue. I am responding on this subject on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter.

I feel it is necessary in the first instance to put on record what direct provision means and how we fulfil our obligations to those persons who apply for international protection from this State. The policy of direct provision and dispersal is one of the central features of the State's asylum system. The Minister has recounted in responses to parliamentary questions in the Dáil how the direct provision system was a necessary response to the increasing number of asylum seekers arriving in the State, given the incapacity of the structures dealing with homelessness to cope with the crisis.

Direct provision is essentially a cashless system whereby the residents of accommodation centres are provided with food and other services on a full board basis. Residents do not have to pay for rent, electricity, heating, food, maintenance or other costs. Health and education services from mainstream hospitals-clinics and schools are provided in the same way as for Irish citizens. Residents receive a weekly direct provision allowance of ¤19.10 per adult and ¤9.60 per child. They are also entitled to supports under the community welfare scheme.

There are currently 4,836 persons seeking international protection residing in 35 direct provision accommodation centres across 17 counties under contract to the Reception and Integration Agency, the RIA, an operational unit of the Irish naturalisation and immigration service, INIS, of the Department of Justice and Equality. Three of the 35 centres are State owned, that is to say, the land and buildings are owned by the State but the management of all 35 centres is provided by private companies under contract to RIA. RIA does not own, lease or rent premises from commercial contractors, rather it contracts in a comprehensive range of services and facilities which include accommodation, housekeeping and so on for a fixed sum over the period of the contract. The Minister has explained in numerous responses to parliamentary questions that RIA negotiates separately with each contractor. It is not in the interests of the taxpayer that details of rates paid to individual contractors for current contracts are provided publicly. With reducing numbers and because of significant cost cutting measures put in place by RIA, the overall cost of the direct provision system is declining. In 2008, RIA spent ¤91.5 million and in 2012, the Estimate provision is ¤63.5 million. This represents a decline of 30% over four years. A breakdown of these expenditure costs are shown in RIA's annual reports for the years 2007 to 2011, inclusive, which are published on its website.

Given that different rates are paid to different contracts and residents receive a range of welfare, medical, legal and educational benefits not covered in the RIA budget, a note of caution has to be sounded in proving a statistic showing the cost per individual to the State of keeping asylum seekers in the direct provision system. Nonetheless, taking the overall RIA expenditure of ¤69.5 million in 2011 and the number of residents at the midpoint of that year, which was 5,745, this would represent a cost per RIA resident of just over ¤12,000 per year. It is worth noting that in 2010, a value for money review of the direct provision system found that: "From comparison with a number of options, including social welfare and self-catering, the chosen policy of direct provision was found to be the best choice for a number of reasons. It is less costly, it is less likely to act as an incentive to new asylum seekers (asylum shopping) and it allows the State to manage the challenge of asylum seekers in a way that reduces pressure on local services." A copy of that particular report, the value for money review is on the Oireachtas and on the RIA websites.