Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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265. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of accommodation centres that were not subject to inspection by officials from the International Protection Accommodation Service or a company (details supplied). [10658/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Deputy, I can assure you that the health and wellbeing of all people who avail of accommodation provided by this Department is of the highest priority to myself and my officials.

International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation centres are currently subject to regular unannounced inspections both IPAS officials and by an independent inspectorate company (QTS Limited).  

These inspections are generally undertaken, twice yearly by officials in IPAS and once yearly by QTS Limited. Any issues identified are notified to the contractor to be addressed immediately. 

In terms of inspection of accommodation centres, work is being finalised on regulations underpinning the monitoring role that The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) will assume in relation to permanent IPAS centres.  

All properties selected under IPAS’ most recent tender process are required to be able to implement and adhere to the National Standards. This requirement applies to the provision of new centres and to any renewal of a contract with a current provider.

Emergency accommodation centres are not subject to inspections on a regular basis due to the nature of the contractual arrangement with them.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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266. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of accommodation centres that were subject to inspection by officials from the International Protection Accommodation Service or a company (details supplied) and that failed the inspection process in each month of 2022 and to date in 2023, expressed as a figure and also as an overall proportion of registered centres at the time of inspection. [10659/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Deputy, I can assure you that the health and wellbeing of all people who avail of accommodation provided by this Department is of the highest priority to myself and my officials.

International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation centres are currently subject to regular unannounced inspections both by IPAS officials and by an independent inspectorate company (QTS Limited).  

These inspections are generally undertaken, twice yearly by officials in IPAS and once yearly by QTS Limited. Any issues identified are notified to the contractor to be addressed immediately.  

In terms of inspection of accommodation centres, work is being finalised on regulations to give effect to the monitoring role being undertaken by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in relation to permanent IPAS centres.  

All properties selected under IPAS’ most recent tender process are required to be able to implement and adhere to the National Standards. This requirement applies to the provision of new centres and to any renewal of a contract with a current provider.

Emergency accommodation centres are not subject to inspections on a regular basis due to the nature of the contractual arrangement with them.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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267. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason payments have not issued to an accommodation centre housing Ukrainian refugees (details supplied) for the months of November, December, January and February; when these payments will issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10740/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has engaged over 700 properties to provide accommodation for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection.  In line with the Department’s commitment to substantially clear the backlog at the end of 2022, I temporarily re-assigned staff from other parts of the Department in December, doubling the size of the payments unit. The enlarged team approved more than 100 million euros worth of payments.

My Department is prioritising maintaining a practice of more timely payments, including providing more resources to address any issues. Any delays in making payments are deeply regretted and my Department is according this issue very high priority.

I am advised by my officials as that payment in respect of Oct/Nov was made to this provider on 19^thof January, 2023, while payment in respect of November (reconciliation) and December was made on 26^thof January. Payments in respect of January and February are being processed and will be paid as soon as possible.

The delay in payment is due to the large volume of invoices being received by my Department.  Additional resources have been assigned and the volume of payments is again steadily growing. My Department will continue to press on to eliminate the backlog while ensuring appropriate governance is in place to safeguard the proper spending of Exchequer funding.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has engaged over 700 properties to provide accommodation for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection.  In line with the Department’s commitment to substantially clear the backlog at the end of 2022, I temporarily re-assigned staff from other parts of the Department in December, doubling the size of the payments unit. The enlarged team approved more than 100 million euros worth of payments.

My Department is prioritising maintaining a practice of more timely payments, including providing more resources to address any issues. Any delays in making payments are deeply regretted and my Department is according this issue very high priority.

I am advised by my officials that payments for the provider, as detailed by the Deputy, are in hand.  My officials have engaged with the provider regarding the submission of appropriate invoices.  These invoices have now been received and will be processed.  Payments are expected to issue shortly once they have passed final checks.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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269. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will look into acquiring a disused school (details supplied) in County Tipperary for use in accommodating refugees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10802/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Deputy, with regard to the use of a building in to accommodate asylum seekers, the Department has not received on offer in respect to the property outlined nor have the owners of the building in question offered it up for use at this time. 

Should the owners of the building wish to offer it for use by my Department they can make contact with my officials at the following address: ipps@equality.gov.ie.