Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

272. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will urgently review the situation regarding accommodation for families (details supplied) to ensure that a bus will bring a child to school and that the accommodation being offered is appropriate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3790/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Deputy, as of 15 January 2023, there are 19,698 people accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) system as a whole. Of this total, 4,086 are children.

The Department has accommodated over 15,000 International Protection Applicants (IPAs) in 2022. Currently, the number of new arrivals each day remains very high. In the first two weeks of 2023 alone, more than 870 new IPAs have arrived in Ireland seeking shelter and safety.

Since 1 December 2022, the Department has accommodated almost 1,500 people in over 25 emergency accommodation locations. These locations comprise of re-purposed office units, schools, former religious buildings and former hospitality accommodation.

The pressure to accommodate an increase of 330% in IPA arrivals in 2022 has resulted in an acute shortfall of available accommodation.

The Department has made every possible effort to secure accommodation and has sought support from the widest possible range of organisations to provide accommodation to IPAs. Where request for tender processes have not delivered the required capacity, the Department has engaged in emergency accommodation sourcing through networks with other State accommodation providers such as the local authorities, through newspaper advertisements, through cold calling and the use of online booking engines.

Deputy, as regards to your query, Mount St Mary’s is currently accommodating 123 International Protection applicants (IPAs). Following the RTÉ report on Friday 20 January, the property was inspected by IPAS on 21 January.

It is very important to note that the report on St Mary’s contained several inaccuracies which have since been noted in the media.

I can confirm that there is bus transport in place for children going to school.

The accommodation consists of 10 en-suite rooms upstairs with 3 beds in each and downstairs are pods of different sizes to cater for different family sizes.

There are radiators in all rooms, timed to switch on from 6am – 9am then from 1pm-4pm and finally from 7pm-10pm. There are 24 toilets which are either private to a single family, or segregated between men and women, along with 7 showers.

Catering is provided by a professional catering company. The pot shown on screen in the report belongs to one of the residents as food is not served by the catering company in this fashion.

While my department understands the distress caused to residents at their move, this was necessary in order to make maximum use of all available accommodation. Between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection applicants, the State is now accommodating more than 73,000 people, compared to over 7,500 at the beginning of 2022. As a result, there is now severe pressure on the State’s accommodation capacity.

Deputy, I trust this information clarifies the matter.