Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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35. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has a policy as to how accommodation provision for beneficiaries of temporary protection and international protection applicants should be organised on a geographical, county-by-county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43327/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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International Protection Accommodation

The Government is committed to supporting all those seeking international protection in Ireland, and to continuing to provide shelter and support to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

The Government's Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy (CAS) for international protection was approved in March 2024 and is now being implemented. This model aims to address the current serious shortfall in accommodation for people seeking IP and to build a more sustainable system for the longer term.

Ireland currently provides accommodation to over 32,600 people applying for international protection and has also welcomed over 109,000 people from Ukraine since 2022. Our system has been forced to expand at a rapid pace over recent years in response to a sharp increase in need.

Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country, and intensive efforts are underway to source and bring into use suitable longer-term accommodation facilities, in line with the Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy.

Accommodation in the new strategy is being delivered through the use of State land for prefabricated and modular units, conversion of commercial buildings, and targeted purchasing of turnkey properties. It will also involve design and build of new Reception and Integration Centres and upgrading of IPAS Centres. This will be supplemented, as required, by high standard commercial providers.

As developing these more sustainable state-owned accommodation system options under this strategy will take time, the commissioning of emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be a feature in the short to medium term. This accommodation will be contracted on shorter-term basis and if numbers drop can be decommissioned as contracts expire.

The degree of control given to the State by the creation of core supply of State-owned accommodation, of both emergency and permanent options, will increase as supply is delivered, re-establishing strategic direction over the accommodation type, location and dispersal pattern.

By adopting the mixed-accommodation plan set out, the Government will begin to gradually

move away from a reactive, crisis response, ultimately permitting the State to:

• Regain long-term certainty over accommodation availability by creating a core, static State-owned asset and incur savings over expenditure allocated to commercial providers.
• Adjust its commercial accommodation stock as required to meet the demands of incoming arrival rates and potential changes in length of stay of applicants within the system
• Gain far greater degree of control over the geographic distribution, allocation and dispersal of applicants, and end reliance on opening new properties in unsuitable locations and/or properties entailing significant adverse impact in local communities (i.e. use of the sole hotel in a given town)
• Gain much greater lead-in time to the opening of new centres, allowing for enhanced and effective local communication, and development of integration linkages
• Plan more effectively for delivery of increased public services, where possible

• The health, safety and well-being of BOTPs in state-supported emergency accommodation.
• Overcharging by providers for the provision of their accommodation.
• Unregulated secondary properties that were being utilised by providers.
• Private and residential properties that were being utilised and retained by the Department when further commercial properties were available.