Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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525. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount a company (details supplied) has been paid by her Department in each of the past five years; and the services the company has provided for payments made by the State for each of the past five years. [4174/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The company in question has provided Ukraine Accommodation and Related services and IP Accommodation and/or Related services to the Department.

Payments made in the period 2020-2024 are detailed below:

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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526. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount that has been paid by her Department in each of the past five years to companies that provide accommodation to persons applying for asylum in Ireland. [4175/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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527. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the average cost per night of providing accommodation for persons applying for asylum in Ireland for each of the past five years. [4176/25]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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528. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of individual bed nights that have been provided by the State to persons applying for asylum in Ireland for each of the past five years. [4177/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 526 to 528, inclusive, together.

Ireland has seen a sharp increase in the number of people applying for international protection since 2022 and our Department provides accommodation for almost 33,000 international protection applicants today, about 9,000 of whom are children with their families.

Providing reception conditions – accommodation and other basic supports – to people seeking international protection is part of Irish and EU law and is also part of our humanitarian duty to provide shelter to people fleeing war and persecution in their home country.

At the moment, over 90% of all IPAS accommodation is provided commercially. A small proportion of our accommodation is provided on state-owned sites, but the development of a sustainable accommodation system over the coming months and years will see less reliance on commercial providers over time. This is provided for in the 2024 Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy, and in the 2025 Programme for Government.

Please see, in tabular format, the total spend on IPAS accommodation, noting the 2024 figure is provisional pending completion of the 2024 Appropriation Accounts.

It is important to note that in the period from 2022 onward, numbers of international protection applicants increased sharply, and creating an increase in overall costs directly related to this increase. By way of illustration, at the end of 2021, IPAS accommodated just over 7,000 people, and today, we accommodate over 32,000 people.

The costs outlined below pertain to accommodation for international protection applicants, and also including transport, facilities management, utilities and other related costs.

The average cost of accommodating a person in international protection accommodation centres, including State-owned and commercial, is set out in the table below.

This includes all accommodation and ancillary costs such as facilities management and other related expenditure. The average cost per night fluctuates due to a wide range of factors including the number of residents and the nature of type of accommodation centres developed and contracted with.

Details of individual contracts or contractual arrangements between the Department and external providers are considered commercially sensitive. In order to preserve the Department's negotiating position, the costs paid to providers or the details of contracts are not published, as making this data available to other accommodation providers would not serve the public interest in terms of value for money.

The Public Sector Reform Plan requires that government departments and agencies publish online reports detailing Purchase Orders (PO) relating to payments for goods, services or works procured to a value greater than €20,000. These are published, once per quarter, on gov.ie:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/dfdadb-department-of-children-and-youth-affairs-purchase-orders-for-20000-o/

The Department does not provide a further breakdown of these payments at this time.

I trust this information is helpful.