Costs rise despite fall in numbers

THE cost of accommodating asylum seekers climbed by e15.5 million last year, despite falling numbers of applicants and tumbling rents generally, Fine Gael said yesterday.

Immigration spokesman Denis Naughten said figures provided to him by the Department of Justice showed that the cost of asylum accommodation rose to e91.5m last year.

The figures, contained in the answer to a Parliamentary Question, prompted Mr Naughten to call on Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to review the existing contracts in place with those providing asylum seeker accommodation, some of which he said was sub-standard.