Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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135. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the action he will take to stop forcing homeless asylum seekers to sleep rough over the winter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68247/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is currently accommodating almost 33,000 people seeking international protection in nearly 320 International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres around the country.

Extensive challenges were posed to the State in sourcing international protection accommodation during an unprecedented surge in applications from 2022 to 2024. Many of the impacts of this surge period remain in place at this time, though significant change is underway.

During this period, over 45,000 additional international protection applicants arrived in Ireland. Prior to this, a typical 3-year period would have seen close to 8,000 or 9,000 arrivals.

During the surge period, the State urgently sourced over 26,000 beds for international protection applicants, and in parallel, up to 60,000 beds for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

From the end of 2023, accommodation shortages meant that not all applicants could be offered an accommodation place.

There is ongoing pressure on availability of accommodation in the international protection system, particularly in accommodation for single male applicants, with new arrivals each week. IPAS remains unable to make an offer to all single male applicants, as the limited number of available beds must be available as contingency for those who are most vulnerable on arrival.

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

IPAS has arrangements 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 teams can currently make offers of accommodation to any applicant who is rough-sleeping, identified through outreach that is organised seven days a week.

While the demand for IPAS accommodation remains very high, the rate of increase in new applications for international protection has reduced since October 2024. This means that since March 2025, IPAS has been able to review the cases of people who are awaiting an offer of accommodation and make offers to those who have been waiting longest.

The review has reduced the number of unaccommodated people from over 3,500 in March to 613 in October 2025.

Depending on availability of spaces and numbers of new applicants, it is hoped 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 Gov.ie.

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/publications/statistics-on-international-protection-applicants-not-offered-accommodation/?referrer=.