Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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586. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will intervene to ensure that a Palestinian asylum seeker (details supplied) is appropriately housed in line with the Government's obligations as clarified by a judge in April 2023, including the requirement to provide basic hygiene conditions, and in light of the individual's particular health needs with respect to access to hospital care; and if he will ensure that the individual's work permit application and IPO interview are expedited, as both have been delayed by a previous cancellation of their international protection application. [31949/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, my Department is unable to publish any information that would identify any person as being an international protection applicant. This is a separate matter to the law dealing with data protection matters more generally.

My officials and I are legally obliged, under Section 26 of the International Protection Act 2015, to ensure that the identity of any person who applies for international protection is kept confidential. Section 26(1) sets out that:

“the Minister and the Tribunal and their respective officers shall take all practicable steps to ensure that the identity of applicants is kept confidential”.

As I am sure you will appreciate, these confidentiality requirements are especially important for an asylum-seeker, whose claim inherently supposes a fear of persecution by the authorities of their home country and whose situation, or that of their family or friends still living in the country from which they have sought protection, can be jeopardised if the protection of their personal information is not ensured.

An applicant for such protection status, or their legal representative, should contact either the International Protection Office (IPO) or the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) directly, as appropriate if they wish to receive an update on the status of their case.

Contact information for The International Protection Office can be found at: www.ipo.gov.ie/en/ipo/pages/contactus.

Contact information for The International Protection Appeals Tribunal can be found at: www.protectionappeals.ie/contact-us/.

Both the International Protection Office (IPO) and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) are fully independent in deciding whether or not to grant international protection. Each application is examined individually on its own merits, in line with national and international asylum law. They are also bound by confidentiality provisions in respect of applicants as set out in the International Protection 2015 Act.

Additionally, I can assure you it is my intention to continue to ramp up investment in the end-to-end international protection process to speed up decision making. This will support reaching key targets, including making 25,000 decisions in the IPO in 2025 and to increase the number of appeals at the IPAT completed over the course of 2025.

In relation to accommodation, due to severe shortages of accommodation over the last year and more, the State was unable to offer accommodation to all people seeking international protection during 2024.

There are currently nearly 33,000 people who are being accommodated by IPAS, and 2,987 people awaiting an offer of accommodation.

IPAS 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.

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

Arrangements are in place with a range of NGO partners to provide drop-in day services so people can access facilities including hot showers, meals and laundry services. IPAS also makes offers of accommodation to any applicant who is rough-sleeping, identified through outreach that is organised 7 days a week.

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

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

The IPAS helpdesk can be contacted by email at ipasinbox@equality.gov.ie.