Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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582. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount paid to each direct provision service provider in 2019; the number of residents at each direct provision centre; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23513/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath 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 under contract. There are currently 43 accommodation centres being operated under the Direct Provision reception system, along with a reception centre for newly arrived applicants in Balseskin, Co. Dublin.

My Department contracts for an all-inclusive service, which includes catering services, as well as cleaning, maintenance and laundry services.  It is my Department's policy not to disclose financial information on individual contracts for the most recent two years. This was agreed with the Office of the Information Commissioner.

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 on-going 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 the details of current individual contracts are made available to other commercial bodies who are, or may be in the future, engaged in these negotiations. 

Notwithstanding this, and in line with the Freedom of Information Acts, contract values for each centre for each year up to and including contracts which terminated in 2018 are available on the website , a copy of which I have provided a link to below.

The numbers accommodated in each accommodation centre, as of 6 September 2020, is provided in the table below.

A further 1,382 people were being accommodated in temporary accommodation in hotels and guest houses on that date due to a lack of available capacity in our permanent centres, including as a result of increased social and physical distancing measures required in centres due to COVID-19. It is not my Department's policy to identify such temporary accommodation premises.

Of the 7,097 people being provided with accommodation by my Department, 810 people have an international protection status or a permission to remain in the State and therefore have the same access to housing supports and services as Irish and EEA nationals. Considerable work is being undertaken to support these residents to move out of accommodation centres and into secure permanent accommodation.  My Department has a specific team who work in collaboration with Depaul Ireland,  the Jesuit Refugee Service, the Peter McVerry Trust, officials in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and the City and County Managers Association to collectively support these residents to access housing options. Between January and July of this year, 694 people have moved to accommodation in the community, of whom 508 received assistance from the support services outlined.