Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

636. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide details of any internal reports his Department has conducted in the past five years regarding the possibility of using vacant State-owned properties to house IPAS or Ukrainian refugees. [34061/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Over the last three years the State’s accommodation systems for international and temporary protection have been forced to expand at a rapid pace in response to a sharp increase in need.

Applications for international protection rose steeply during 2022, 2023 and 2024. At the same time, over 114,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine came to Ireland.

In response to the increase, from 2022 onward, the Government explored and sought to provide a range of accommodation solutions in every county in Ireland. While the Government or my Department did not commission a specific report as referenced, a wide ranging effort was made across all Government Department and State agencies to respond to this need.

The State’s response to the war in Ukraine was co-ordinated by the Cabinet Committee on Migration and supported by a Senior Officials Group led by the Department of the Taoiseach.

Under this structure, an Accommodation Working Group was established involving the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the City and County Management Association to consider the accommodation needs of the large numbers of people arriving in Ireland having fled the war in Ukraine.

The International Protection and Integration Division, previously under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth (DCEDIY), also reached out during this period on a number of occasions to other Government departments and public service bodies for buildings or sites that would be suitable for use as accommodation.

A number of organisations responded including the Departments of Education and Further and Higher Education for school and third level institution facilities; the Department of Defence for unused barracks and buildings; the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media for sporting and arts facilities; the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Office of Public Works and the HSE for sites that can be used to support the department’s intensive efforts to provide shelter to people in need.

Many of the offers that have come through these requests have resulted in accommodation centres being established, both temporary and longer term. These options were taken up and were necessary in order to provide shelter to people seeking international protection, or people from Ukraine, to meet basic needs, meet legal and humanitarian commitments, and to prevent homelessness.

In March 2024, the Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy was published, which continued this commitment to examining the use of State-owned property for use as international protection accommodation, and this approach has been further affirmed in the new Programme for Government.