Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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475. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will give further consideration to the true costs of the direct provision system for asylum seekers, including health care, social welfare and legal costs; and if the direct provision system is still cheaper than providing for asylum seekers in the community when these costs are taken into account. [30674/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The direct provision system is managed by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of my Department. For the most part, this represents a cashless system with the State assuming responsibility for providing suitable accommodation for asylum seekers on a full board basis. RIA currently provides full board accommodation and ancillary services to 4,587 persons in 34 centres across the State. The issues raised in this question were examined in considerable detail in the 2010 Value for Money (VFM) Report which is available on the RIA website - www.ria.gov.ie. The Report found that there are no cheaper alternatives to the Direct Provision system. In fact, if we were operating a system which facilitated asylum seekers in living independent lives in individual housing with social welfare support and payments, the cost to the exchequer would be double what is currently paid under the direct provision system. Note that if the State were to allow all asylum seekers avail of full social welfare supports, including rent supplement, the immediate impact would be for all asylum seekers, including those not currently in RIA accommodation, to avail of that financial support. As things stand, not all asylum seekers live in direct provision. Some live with friends or family or provide from their own resources. I have said before that I accept that the length of time spent in direct provision and the complexity of the asylum process itself is an issue which needs to be addressed. The revised Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, which I intend to re-publish, should substantially simplify and streamline the existing arrangements for asylum, subsidiary protection and leave to remain applications. It will do this by making provision for the establishment of a single application procedure, so that applicants can be provided with a final decision on all aspects of their protection application in a more straight forward and timely fashion. Pending the enactment and commencement of the new legislation and with a view to improving processing, I am proposing to introduce new arrangements for the processing of subsidiary protection applications in light of recent judgments in the Superior Courts. My Department, in consultation with the Attorney General's Office, is developing a new legislative and administrative framework for the processing of current and future subsidiary protection applications. This work is being given high priority and applicants will be advised of the new arrangements as soon as possible.

Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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476. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the mental health care provided for asylum seekers and persons seeking leave to remain who are living in direct provision; and if data is collected regarding the number of persons with serious mental health problems in the direct provision system. [30675/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of my Department is responsible for the accommodation of asylum seekers in accordance with the Government policy of direct provision and dispersal. RIA currently provides accommodation to 4,587 persons in 34 accommodation centres across the State. Firstly, it is important to point out that services to asylum seekers in direct provision are main streamed. As such, asylum seekers receive a health service, including mental health services, on the same basis as Irish citizens. This is, in many cases, superior to what it available in their country of origin. Asylum seekers in direct provision first link in with health services when they are temporarily accommodated in a reception centre in Dublin after they first claim international protection. In the reception centre, they are offered medical screening and are linked in with Community Welfare services. Access is also provided to GP's, Public Health Nurses and psychological services. After a period of approximately two weeks, those asylum seekers are scheduled for dispersal to accommodation centres throughout the country, subject to clearance by the HSE Health Centre in the reception centre. If there are particular health concerns, a person may be retained for a period at the reception centre or may be dispersed to specified accommodation centres with access to particular health services. Even after dispersal, further health needs may present. Such cases are reviewed by RIA's internal administrative health unit in conjunction with the local health services to see if any administrative arrangements, transfers etc., can be put in place. RIA has access to an independent medical referee to assist in the assessment of particular health needs.

On a more general level, it is very difficult to get any verifiable data in relation to the mental health of asylum seekers in Direct Provision. Patently, an asylum seeker, having removed himself from the social and family supports he had in his country of origin to live in a communal setting of a direct provision centre with all of the uncertainty attaching to his longer term immigration status, is bound to be under stress to a greater extent than the 'settled' population. The issue of whether poor mental health of some asylum seekers is a function of pre-migration stress, of the stress of the migration itself, of post migration issues, of living in Direct Provision, or a combination of these factors, is a complex matter and as such great caution should be exercised before drawing conclusions. At all events, RIA does not have access, as a matter of course, to a person's confidential medical records. Therefore, the collation of data regarding the number of persons with mental health problems in direct provision is a matter for the HSE.