Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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618. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of the support payments to her Department for those seeking international protection as provided for in the White Paper to End Direct Provision and to Establish a New International Protection Support Service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13426/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I welcome that Minister O’Gorman has brought the White Paper to end Direct Provision and to establish a new International Protection Support Service to Government, which will meet the Government commitment to end direct provision. This White Paper outlines a model for developing a new International Protection Accommodation and Support System that will be implemented between now and the end of 2024.

My Department is committed to supporting this process of change and my officials will continue to work with colleagues in Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as we move to implement this new model.

The new model proposes a two-phase approach to accommodating applicants for international protection. In Phase 1, my Department will continue to provide Daily Expenses Allowance, as the income support payment to protection applicants while they stay in the Reception and Integration centre. The estimated cost for daily expenses allowance in the first 4 months in the Reception and Integration centre to my Department is €3.7m. These costings have been developed based on the assumption that the new model needs to have capacity to meet the needs of 3,500 applicants per year, of whom one-third will be children.

In Phase 2, applicants will move out of the Reception and Integration Centres to accommodation in the community. While it is envisaged that my Department will provide a payment channel for the new International Protection Payments on behalf of Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, it is that department which will retain the policy and budget for the payments.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.