Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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252. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the staffing complement and the annual budget of the International Protection Procurement Service since its creation. [38283/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The International Protection and Integration Division has overall responsibility for developing and promoting policy on migrant integration. The division is responsible for procuring, developing and providing accommodation and reception conditions for international protection applicants, guided by EU regulations and the Government's Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy (CAS).

The Government’s strategy to address accommodation shortages and build a sustainable system involves a range of different actions, from developing state-owned sites with tented and modular accommodation, to considering more immediate offers of accommodation from providers, including existing accommodation, conversions of office or commercial facilities, and other options.

The CAS will see a move away from full reliance on private providers and towards a core of State-owned accommodation, delivering 14,000 State-owned beds by 2028 – quadruple the previous commitment under the White Paper. This will be supplemented, as required, by high standard commercial providers.

The Department's International Protection Procurement Service (IPPS) unit manages and oversees the procurement of accommodation centres from commercial providers for international protection applicants. The current staffing complement of IPPS is 31 staff. The Department operates under a decentralised procurement structure, where each business unit is responsible for its own procurement activities.

Full year expenditure for 2021-2023 are provided below. Earlier years are not available due to transfer of function from the Department of Justice.