Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of asylum seekers that have died while living in direct provision centres over the past 12 years; the year in which each died; their respective ages at the time of their deaths and the respective cause of their deaths; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43669/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) is responsible for the accommodation of asylum seekers under the Government policy of direct provision and dispersal.

The collation of statistics on deaths of all asylum seekers living in direct provision commenced only in 2002. During the period 2002 to date, there have been 53 deaths of asylum seekers who were residing in direct provision accommodation prior to their deaths.

While RIA may have general knowledge of the cause of death - perhaps by way of information arising from the specified medical needs of the resident concerned prior to his or her death - it does not, indeed cannot, hold or have access to death certificates. In most cases, the deaths would have occurred outside the asylum centres themselves e.g. in hospitals. If the HSE or a Coroner were to raise an issue relating to the accommodation in which a deceased person lived prior to their death - and this has never happened - then RIA would respond accordingly. Where information is provided to centre managers by relatives or friends of the deceased, this is recorded by RIA and indicates that the causes of death ranged from cancers, heart conditions to traffic accidents and, in the case of deaths of children under the age of five, it is believed that a number were suspected cot deaths and still births. Given previous misinterpretations of statistics provided in this respect, it is important to say that only one of these deaths can with certainty be said to be a suicide and that involved a newly arrived asylum seeker taking his own life in 2008 while in hospital.

The number of asylum seekers who died while being provided with accommodation by RIA in direct provision centres and an age breakdown for those persons are set out as follows.

While all of these deaths are, of course, tragic, RIA has provided accommodation for over 50,000 persons over the course of the twelve years the direct provision policy has been in place, and the numbers of deaths need to be viewed proportionately and against this background.

It needs to be recorded that the above relates only to asylum seekers living in the Direct Provision system. Some asylum seekers choose not to avail of the Direct Provision system and stay with friends or relatives. It is possible that, during the period in question, there could have been deaths among this cohort but such data is not available to RIA.