John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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151. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the efforts he is making to ensure that locations where the sole hotel remaining in a given town which is currently being used, or is proposed to be used, to provide accommodation for international protection applicants are maintained as hotels to provide beds to support the local tourism industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21666/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The State is currently providing accommodation to approximately 33,000 people applying for international protection and has also welcomed over 114,000 people from Ukraine since 2022.

The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) provides accommodation at over 320 centres nationwide.

Our accommodation systems have been forced to expand at a rapid pace over the last two to three years in response to a sharp increase in need among both groups, at a time when accommodation in Ireland was in short supply across society.

Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country, and intensive efforts have been made, as part of a whole of Government response, to ensure people in need were provided with shelter and support.

Over the last 2 years, against the backdrop of unique events in Ukraine, increased need, and the acute shortages of accommodation, it was not been possible for the State to apply many specific policies in relation to distribution of accommodation centres.

The agreement to not contract IPAS accommodation in a given town’s only operating hotel was accepted by Government during this period of intense need, and was agreed to on the basis of not removing an important current amenity from public use.

This was based on not accepting a new contract that would take a town’s last hotel out of public use for events, holiday or business stays, and day-to-day use by the town for food, socialising or leisure.

It is important to note that this applies to hotels which had been in current public use for accommodation – not those which had been closed to guests for a number of years.

While data is not collated formally, this agreement has been widely adhered to on the basis outlined above over the last year or more.

Trends in the need for accommodation are now changing, and the level of need among people from Ukraine has reduced and is expected to continue to do so.

Many properties (more than 400 in 2024) are being returned to their former use, for example in tourism, hospitality and education, and to private use. Figures from Fáilte Ireland show that in 2024, over 12,000 beds were returned to tourism from the State's Ukraine response These were among 15,000 beds returned to private use by the Ukraine team in the period.

My Department is working toward developing a more stable and sustainable accommodation system, and to source and bring into use suitable longer-term international protection accommodation facilities in line with the Government’s Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy (CAS). This work involves the ongoing effort to develop accommodation on State-owned land, and targeted purchasing of turnkey properties.