Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1751.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to a differential in mortality rates between infants in direct provision and infants in the general population; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31144/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I can assure the Deputy that the health and wellbeing of all who avail of accommodation in International Protection Accommodation Centres provided by my Department remains the highest priority to both myself and my officials.

As the Deputy may be aware, the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) has a policy on the recording and reporting of deaths of residents in International Protection Accommodation Centres. As part of that policy, IPAS publishes resident death statistics on a biannual basis with the most recent publication in July 2024.

This information is available on the IPAS website and can be found at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/8224f-statistics-on-deaths-of-international-protection-accommodation-service-residents/

As the Deputy can see from the data published by my Department, 121 individuals have sadly passed away while resident in International Protection Accommodation Centres from 2002 to date, of which 22 were aged 0-2 years.

The health needs of International Protection Applicants (IPAs) are a matter for the HSE in the first instance. Healthcare is mainstreamed for those in IPAS accommodation, with IPAs entitled to a medical card and Primary Care, GP care and emergency services in the same manner of an Irish national.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.