Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 462: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of and location of State owned centres for the provision of services to asylum seekers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27744/12]

Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 463: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the weekly cost to the State for the supply of services in each individual State owned accommodation centre; the name of the person or company that operates each centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27745/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 462 and 463 together.

The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), a functional unit of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department, is responsible for the accommodation of persons while their applications for international protection are being processed. Currently, over 5,100 persons are being accommodated throughout the State in 37 centres under contract to RIA. Of the 37 centres in the State, 7 are State owned. That is to say, while the centres are managed by private contractors under contract to RIA, the land and buildings are owned by the State. At appendix A below is a list of those 7 State owned centres showing their capacities and residents' profiles.

The Deputy should be aware that RIA has recently completed an EU tender competition for the management of these State owned centres. The relevant contracts have now been signed and are effective from 14 June, 2012. The list at appendix B indicates how these 7 centres were tendered for in terms of 'lots' and the winning contractors for those lots effective from 14 June, 2012.

The RIA does not hold past financial information on individual State-owned contracts in an easily accessible form. Relevant information in relation to these centres is being compiled and details of the costs of each of these centres will be forwarded directly to the Deputy shortly. In this respect it is important to note that, as explained in replies to previous Dáil Questions, it is not in the interest of the taxpayer that details of current individual contracts are known to the public or to other parties who are, or may be in the future, engaged in negotiations with RIA. Therefore, details of current contract rates are not provided. The policy is that the updating of the table of contracts will take place only at the end of January each year in respect of all financial information up to the end of December two years previously, e.g. at the end of January, 2012 the records are updated to end of December 2009. This policy has been upheld by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

To assist the Deputy in getting a broader picture of spending on the Direct Provision system in general terms, I set out at appendix C below a breakdown of the total of €69.459 million expended by RIA in 2011. The Deputy will note that a total of €8.258m was spent in 2011 on the fixed costs - i.e. the costs related to the provision of management and other services - of the 7 State-owned accommodation centres and that a further €1.458m was spent on utility and maintenance costs at these 7 centres.

Appendix A

The current State-owned centres are:

Appendix B

Contractors for State owned centres effective from 14 June, 2012

Appendix C

Breakdown of Expenditure in RIA in 2011

Notes:

* This figure also includes the amount paid for the 7 commercially owned centres which were closed during 2011.

**This represents direct spending by RIA on costs in relation to transport to the Dublin reception centre and, onwards on dispersal, to accommodation centres throughout the country. Individual centres also provide transport (e.g. into local town or city) for resident asylum seekers but this cost is subsumed into the overall contract price.