Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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84. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the up-to-date position on delivering a more stable and sustainable IPAS accommodation system; the up-to-date position on refocusing IPAS accommodations to a state owned and service model; his plans on reducing and ceasing the use of commercial contracts for IPAS accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68402/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Department is taking action across all aspects of the international protection accommodation system to move toward greater State-owned provision, to improve value for money, and strengthen governance, compliance, and integration supports.

A range of support services are provided directly to people in IPAS accommodation centres to support them to settle in, and to support them in their day to day needs while they are resident with us.

I was delighted to announce this morning the 37 community organisations that will be supported under the Ireland Against Racism Fund 2025. The organisations will share funding of €1.5m which will enable them to progress valuable local and regional projects that combat racism and promote racial equality in our communities.

The Department provides funding for integration teams within each Local Authority, and a range of funding schemes for communities, to support integration of people who newly arrive to an area.

An overall reform of the international protection system is underway that is already working to speed up the processing of applications and should reduce the need for constant growth in the accommodation system, such as we have seen in recent years.

We are developing more State-owned accommodation from a range of sources, including using State-owned sites for temporary accommodation and purchasing of appropriate sites for use as accommodation. As a key milestone, the State has purchased Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre in August of this year, which has increased our overall State-owned bed numbers from 900 spaces in early 2024 to over 4,000 today.

Developing more State-owned options will allow us to move away from the current degree of reliance on commercial provision to more State-owned accommodation.

While commissioning emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be necessary in the short to medium term, it is being contracted on a short-term basis, which will enable the State to decommission this capacity with agility as contracts expire or demand fluctuates.

Applications for international protection this year have reduced compared to 2024, though they remain high compared to pre-2022 levels. This reduction has allowed department officials to put in place greater controls over the IPAS accommodation portfolio after many years of intense surges in arrivals, and a crisis response to source accommodation.

A range of updated systems and procedures have been put in place and are already having an impact. IPAS has put improved processes in place for appraisal, validation, contracting and payments. The introduction of a new rate card model is driving costs down for new and renewed contracts, already saving over €59 million this year. This reform within the accommodation system is on track for continued process improvement and costs savings as we move forward into 2026.