'Accommodation for asylum seekers will remain constrained' despite 1,200 new beds 

Dolcain House in Clondalkin, one of three buildings being opened as accommodation centres for people seeking international protection. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Accommodation for asylum seekers will remain “constrained” despite 1,200 beds being found in recent weeks, an Oireachtas committee will be told on Tuesday.

Officials are due to address the joint Oireachtas committee on children, equality, disability, integration, and youth on the handling of the migrant situation, along with local authority representatives.

In her opening statement, the Assistant Secretary General of the Department of Integration, Carol Baxter, will tell TDs and senators that over 20,648 asylum seekers are now accommodated in the international protection system, compared with 11,000 this time last year.

This, she will say, constitutes “an unprecedented level of demand for IPAS [International Protection Accommodation Services] accommodation”.

Ms Baxter will add that accommodation has been sourced at Maynooth University during the summer and that work is beginning on rapid-build sites.

“We are currently working on a number of projects to purchase and build centres that would be State-owned,” she will say.

“This is starting with rapid build projects at the Athlone and Knocklisheen IPAS centres as part of a proof of concept project being undertaken under the auspices of the Department of the Taoiseach’s Accommodation Working Group.”

5,880 beds for IP applicants

Ms Baxter will tell the committee that the International Protection Procument Service (IPPS) has procured 5,880 beds for international protection applicants so far this year and has opened 145 emergency centres since January of last year.

However, more than 2,500 beds have also been lost during this period as hotels, originally procured during the covid pandemic, pivot back to tourism.

A further 92 beds are scheduled to be lost by 10 June, she will say.

As of May 24, 217 adult males remained unaccommodated, and supply will be “constrained into the future as it takes time to bring new projects onstream”.

Accommodation for 61,000 Ukrainians

Her colleague Sheenagh Rooney, assistant secretary at the Ukraine Programme Management Office, will say that over 83,000 Ukrainians have come to Ireland, with 61,000 of those being assisted with accommodation.

The department has spent over €976m on Ukraine accommodation and related costs since the Russian invasion in 2022, with the bill so far this year being almost €461m, the bulk of this going on accommodation.

In recent weeks, the department has been paying out around €30m per week to contractors.

Harris praises gardaí

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Simon Harris praised the garda response to a blockade of a facility for asylum seekers in Santry, north Dublin.

Gardaí dismantled the blockade over the weekend, having been criticised for not being active enough regarding protesters.

“I actually think the garda efforts and work over the weekend have been extraordinarily successful.

“I mean, the first job of An Garda Síochána is to keep people safe, is to ensure that people’s rights are upheld — including the right to protest — but absolutely ensuring that right never crosses into something you’ve absolutely no right to do.

“You have no right to behave in an unlawful fashion.

“You have no right to intimidate, no right to endanger, and you have no right to block or impede somebody trying to go around their business.”