Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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137. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will increase the funding provided to a direct provision centre (details supplied), which is over capacity as families cannot move out due to a local shortage of accommodation. [10584/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department, with the support of my colleagues in Government, are moving to create new responsive structures and put in place new funding channels to recognise the impact of new arrivals on communities around the country.

Earlier this month my Department launched The Communities Integration Fund (CIF) for 2023 where €500,000 will be made available to local community-based projects nationwide to support the integration of migrants.  Within the CIF, grants of up to €5,000 will be allocated to successful organisations to support integration initiatives.

For each of the past six years a total of €500,000 has been made available to local community based organisationsto carry out integration projects in their local area. An additional €66,492.60 was made available for CIF 2022, of which €64,015.00 was awarded to projects assisting Ukrainian arrivals to Ireland.

At the end of February 2023, over 5,000 people in IPAS accommodation have a status or a permission to remain in Ireland granted and are no longer applicants in the IP process. This refers to a person with refugee status/subsidiary protection or persons with Stamp 4 permission to remain in the State who are no longer international protection applicants (IPAs) and who will need to transition into alternative accommodation to create space for new arrivals.

IPAs who have been granted an international protection status (refugee status or subsidiary protection status) or a permission to remain have the same access to housing supports and services as Irish and EEA nationals. There are a number of supports available to persons with status to assist in accessing housing in the community when leaving accommodation centres. The Department has a specific team in IPAS who work in collaboration with DePaul Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust, officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the County and City Management Association to collectively support residents with status, or a permission to remain, to access housing options.

In addition to assisting with housing applications, both DePaul Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust support the person’s integration into the community as fully as possible. This includes providing information about vocational and training courses, such as suitability, locations and eligibility, CV preparation and aid with medical issues, should they arise.