Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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252. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of hotel beds, by county, currently provided to beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine and persons in the international protection process, respectively, disaggregated by hotels or accommodation providers that were commercially active and commercially inactive. [8476/24]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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253. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of hotel beds, by county, currently provided to beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine and persons in the international protection process, disaggregated by hotels or accommodation providers that were commercially active and commercially inactive prior to the State taking out contracts with respect to those beds. [8477/24]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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254. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of beds and contracts, referenced above, for which contracts expire within the next six and 12 months, respectively. [8478/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 252 to 254, inclusive, together.

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 74,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine who required State supported accommodation and approximately 27,500 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.

BOTP

The Department does not collate data on the basis of commercial activity status of properties which accommodate beneficiaries of temporary protection (BOTPs), and this is not available in the manner requested by the Deputy. Not all of the hotels under contract would be included as tourism bed stock premises on Fáilte Ireland registers and listings, e.g. former hotels, inns, lodges, and re-purposed accommodation retreat centres.

A report by Fáilte Ireland in November 2023 indicated that nationally 12% of registered beds were under a Government contract with respect to beneficiaries of temporary protection.

The following table refers to properties catering for BOTPs under the ‘hotel’ category within the available data. To avoid the risk of disclosure of the location of accommodation of Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection the figures for Louth and Monaghan are provided as an aggregate.

Within the next six months, 486 contracts are due to expire. This comprises a maximum capacity of 31,335.

Within the next twelve months, 585 contracts are due to expire. This figure comprises a maximum capacity of 38,477.

IP

The Department does not collate data on the basis of commercial activity status of properties which accommodate International Protection (IP) applicants, and this is not available in the manner requested by the Deputy.

Please see, in tabular format, the number of hotels which are currently providing accommodation to IP applicants.

The Departments works on the premise that a contract for accommodation of IP applicants runs indefinitely unless there is a serious breach of contract which cannot be resolved . As such, the information is not collated in the manner requested.

Change of use is a planning matter and the Deputy may wish to refer any queries on this to my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.