Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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400. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount provided to each reception and integration centre, by centre and region, in each of the years from 2011 to 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36653/18]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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All accommodation centres for those persons seeking protection, whether State-owned or privately owned, are operated by commercial companies. There are currently 35 accommodation centres being operated under the direct provision system.

Extensive and detailed information on the amount paid by my Department to each company contracted to provide direct provision accommodation every year up to and including 2015 can be found on the RIA website www.ria.gov.ie under the 'Contract Values' section of the website - .

This is in accordance with the Reception & Integration Agency's policy on disclosure of financial information which was agreed with the Office of the Information Commissioner. The Deputy will appreciate that it is not appropriate to provide values for current contracts entered into by my Department. Negotiations take place with a number of commercial entities on an ongoing basis with a clear focus on achieving the best value for money in respect of each contract. It is not in the interests of yielding best value for the taxpayer that details of current individual contracts are made available to other commercial bodies who are, or may be in the future, engaged in these negotiations.

The Deputy will also wish to be aware that my Department, in association with the Office of Government Procurement, GP is in the process of running an open, transparent, competitive tender process for the provision of accommodation and related services in the Sligo area. Details of this competition can be found on the etenders website. Further competitions for all other accommodation centres will be run into the future.