Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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719. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the proposed role of an association (details supplied) in the setting of settlement patterns for asylum seekers under the White Paper on the international protection support service. [17090/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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720. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the timeline envisioned for a decision on the establishment of a new body to oversee the proposed international protection support service. [17091/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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721. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the accommodation strand he envisions for housing victims of trafficking as per page 43 of the White Paper on the international protection support service. [17092/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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722. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the extent to which the urban renewal schemes strand of accommodation proposed on page 45 of the White Paper on the international protection support service represents a not-for-profit model. [17093/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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723. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the complaints process envisioned on page 53 of the White Paper on the international protection support service will be independent and have a right of appeal to the ombudsman or the court system. [17094/21]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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725. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the status of the appointment of the transition team within his Department outlined on page 81 of the White Paper on the international protection support service. [17096/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 719 to 723, inclusive, and 725 together.

The role of the City and County Management Association (CCMA) will be to support my Department to develop a national allocation key which will set out the number of applicants for international protection who will be accommodated in urban areas in each county. My Department will work with the CCMA to develop criteria in this regard. The objective is that the allocation key should be fair and transparent and based on clear and simple criteria.

The preparatory process for the Programme Board, which will oversee the implementation of the new system and whose members will include representatives from Government Departments, NGOs and former residents of Direct Provision, is currently underway. An external advisory group of three independent persons will be established to monitor the implementation of the new model. Preparatory work is being undertaken on the process for selecting these independent experts.

The appointment of the Transition Team is underway and its first task will be to develop a detailed implementation plan and timeline for all accommodation strands in the White Paper.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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724. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the legally binding standards on international protection accommodation providers, their operation and the warnings or sanctions given since 1 January 2021. [17095/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The National Standards meet the requirements of the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive (Directive 2013/33/EU) which we voluntarily opted into in June 2018.

My Department is engaged in consultations with the Department of Health and HIQA aimed at establishing an independent monitoring mechanism for standards in International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation centres. It has not yet been determined whether legislative change will be required to put this in place.

Accommodation centres are currently subject to regular unannounced inspections by both my officials in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) and an independent inspections company (QTS Limited). The requirement for inspection of dedicated accommodation centres is a contractual obligation for the contractors.

There are currently 46 designated accommodation centres that come under the inspections programme including the National Reception Centre in Balseskin, Co. Dublin.

These inspections are generally undertaken, twice yearly by my officials in IPAS and once yearly by QTS Limited. Inspections cover a wide range of issues including the quality of the food quality, fire safety, appropriate signage and information for residents, the condition of communal areas and sleeping quarters and adherence to hygiene and other health and safety measures. Completed inspections are published on www.ria.gov.ie.

The current inspection programme was severely compromised by the COVID-19 pandemic. All inspections were suspended temporarily during the first phase of COVID-19 restrictions but they recommenced on 14 September 2020 with all necessary safeguards in place. In 2020, my Department was able to ensure that all centres, with the exception of the new centre in Dominick Street in Galway which was not fully occupied until late 2020, were inspected at least once by IPAS officials, with 13 centres being inspected twice by IPAS officials. Furthermore QTS carried out an additional 29 inspections last year. This gives a combined total of 101 inspections carried out in 2020.