Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Services for all International Protection applicants, including healthcare, are mainstreamed and accessed through the same referral pathways as Irish citizens. Residents in all International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation centres access GP services within the local community, and mental health services are accessed through the same referral pathways as Irish citizens – that is, through primary care, GP referral and emergency services.

IPAS liaises with the HSE in relation to how best to meet the health and related needs of International Protection Applicants in IPAS centres, including working closely with the HSE Social Inclusion Outreach Team to provide healthcare assistance for residents.

Additionally, IPAS has a dedicated Resident Welfare Team comprising subject matter experts seconded to the team on a full time basis, as well as a number of support officers, who direct applicants with special reception needs within our accommodation, to relevant services or provide other appropriate information, as required.

Where appropriate, the Resident Welfare Team engages with the centre managers and NGOs on-site to ensure that an applicant’s reception needs can be addressed within their current accommodation centre, providing information and support and signposting persons to relevant services. IPAS Social Workers seconded to the Resident Welfare Team are available to help applicants with high levels of vulnerability, and can make onward referrals to services and advocate for vulnerable persons as appropriate.

At 24 January 2024, IPAS’s 265 centres provide accommodation to over 26,000 International Protection Applicants. IPAS receives varying correspondence, notices and reports annually from centre management, other stakeholders and from International Protection Applicants directly, seeking assistance in respect of health concerns, including mental health and addiction. In such cases and as outlined above, IPAS provides guidance and advice to persons to engage with their GP and where required, provides detail of local services available to them.

While IPAS maintains information annually in respect of persons and their health and reception needs, these are utilised to address the individual’s requirements at that point in time. In certain instances, correspondence is addressed to a conclusion, requiring no further action or management.

Please see, in tabular format, the number of incidents recorded under the associated keywords provided by the Deputy.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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454. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will house refugees in a property (details supplied) whilst an enforcement action detailing significant issues with the development has been issued against the property by the local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4271/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Since the outset of the war in Ukraine in early 2022, Ireland has provided accommodation to over 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection applicants. This includes approximately 75,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine who required State supported accommodation and over 26,000 International Protection applicants currently in IPAS accommodation. Prior to the war in Ukraine, there were 8,300 applicants for international protection in State supported accommodation.

As stated in previously in Parliamentary Question 1422 of 17 January 2024, I am advised that my Department has no current offer for accommodation for BOTPs or IPs at the property to which the Deputy refers.

All accommodation offered to the Department undergo an assessment process.

Offers of accommodation to BOTPs where properties are in need of significant conversion and refurbishment works are passed on to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for assessment under the Emergency Refurbishment (Ukraine) Programme (ERUP). As with all offers of accommodation to accommodate BOTPs, but most particularly with regard to those requiring conversion/refurbishment, a detailed assessment must be carried out to ensure the property being offered is being prepared to the required standard and complies with building, fire and other statutory requirements. Accommodation providers are responsible for engaging with the relevant local authority when carrying out the refurbishment works. Before a property in the ERUP programme is contracted for accommodating BOTPs, the relevant local authority confirms to my Department that the property is in compliance with key requirements, including planning, fire and other regulatory requirements.