Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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406. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount paid annually to private contractors providing direct provision services since it was introduced in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3291/20]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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All accommodation centres for people seeking international protection, whether State-owned or privately owned, are operated by commercial companies. There are currently 39 accommodation centres being operated under the direct provision system.

My Department contracts for a fully inclusive service, which includes catering, cleaning, maintenance and laundry services. 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 'Contract Values' section of the following website: www.ria.gov.ie. This is in accordance with the Department's policy on the 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 the current individual contract values 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 following table provides a breakdown of my Department's expenditure in this area in the years 2014 to 2019.