Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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599. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of transfers that have taken place between direct provision centres in the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and the reasons for the transfers. [33575/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Reception & Integration Agency (RIA) is a functional unit of the Irish Naturalisation & Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department and is responsible for the accommodation of asylum seekers under the government policy of direct provision and dispersal. Currently, 4,311 persons are residing in 34 asylum accommodation centres under contract to RIA.

Transfers of residents from one centre to another is a daily occurrence in RIA. For example, following initial accommodation in a reception centre in Dublin, residents are transferred to other accommodation centres around the country as part of the Government's dispersal policy. It is the general policy not to transfer persons again unless there is good reason to do so. Such reasons may be to facilitate medical treatments, to provide more spacious accommodation for growing families, to more appropriately provide for a disability and so on. Sometimes transfers have to take place for other reasons, for example, arising from the downsizing or closures of centres or for health or safety purposes. Moreover, transfers can take place at the request of the residents themselves to be closer to friends or relatives.

Given the above, records of the movement of persons between accommodation centres are not collated centrally but held with the record of the individual concerned. It would not be feasible in those circumstances to compile the statistics sought.