Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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1080. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of international protection applicants who have not been offered accommodation on arrival in each month in 2025 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30683/25]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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1081. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason data relating to the number of international protection applicants not offered accommodation when applying for protection has slowed from twice a week to once a month; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30684/25]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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1082. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when the policy of not offering accommodation to international protection applications will cease; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30685/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1080, 1081 and 1082 together.

Ireland is currently accommodating almost 33,000 people seeking international protection in over 320 International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres around the country.

Due to severe shortages of accommodation over recent years, the State was unable to offer accommodation to all people seeking international protection since 2024, and there are currently 2,987 people awaiting an offer of accommodation.

Our teams manage a limited supply of accommodation, prioritising people with families or who have specific health needs or other vulnerabilities. This means that single male applicants are most affected by lack of accommodation.

From January to April 2025, the following numbers of single male applicants were not offered accommodation on arrival:

IPAS also makes offers of accommodation to any applicant who is rough sleeping, identified through outreach that is organised 7 days a week.

People who are not offered accommodation are given a weekly allowance of €113.80 per week, an increase of €75 more than the standard weekly allowance for asylum-seekers.

While the demand for IPAS accommodation remains very high, the rate of increase in new applications for international protection has reduced in recent months. This means that IPAS has been able to review the cases of people who are awaiting an offer of accommodation, and to make offers of accommodation to some of those who have been waiting the longest.

As part of the review process, we are also identifying people who no longer require accommodation. They will be removed from the list of people waiting for an offer, speeding up the process for people on the list who still need accommodation.

Depending on availability of spaces and numbers of new applicants, we hope to continue to make offers of accommodation to more people over the coming weeks and months.

Updated information on unaccommodated international protection applicants is published online at www.gov.ie/en/publication/ec5f2-statistics-on-international-protection-applicants-not-offered-accommodation/?referrer=https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e202e-statistics-on-international-protection-applicants-not-offered-accommodation/. The reason that this data is updated less frequently at this time is because IPAS are making retrospective offers as outlined above. As this process is ongoing, monthly reporting is considered to be the most accurate, as it allows time for accepted or rejected offers to be accurately reflected.