Cost of accommodating each asylum seeker rises to €84 a day

In January a decision to move up to 400 Ukrainians from the Quality Hotel in Youghal — where they had been living since early 2022 — in order to instead accommodate IPAS applicants at the site was put on hold by the Department of Integration following a local outcry. Picture: Dan Linehan

The average cost to the State of accommodating individual asylum seekers in Ireland has risen by nearly 50% over the past two years, according to new figures.

The cost to house international protection applicants rose from €57 per day in 2022 to €84 in 2024, the Department of Integration said. There are currently nearly 33,000 international protection applicants accommodated across Ireland, roughly 9,000 of whom are children with their families.

The sharp rise in costs associated with housing asylum seekers contrasts with a fall in the budget allocated for the housing of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the conflict with Russia.

The budget for housing Ukrainian nationals — who have been accommodated in Ireland as beneficiaries of temporary protection (BOTP) — will be €456m this year, down from the €1.1bn used to fund the programme in 2023, the second year of the Russia/Ukraine conflict.

“Over the last 12 months, the need for accommodation for people affected by the war in Ukraine has reduced and this is expected to continue,” a spokesperson for the department said.

“Many people are choosing to move on from State-supported accommodation or are leaving Ireland, and the department is reducing the number of contracts in place with properties,” they added.

In recent weeks and months many Ukrainians who had been living as BOTPs in Ireland were told they would have to leave the accommodation they had been living in at short notice, most notably from student accommodation centres.

A spokesperson for the Department of Further and Higher Education said it is its position that “given the existing demand for student accommodation that student-specific accommodation should be retained for its intended use, in accordance with Government policy to address the supply of student accommodation under Housing for All”.

In January a decision to move up to 400 Ukrainians from the Quality Hotel in Youghal — where they had been living since early 2022 — in order to instead accommodate IPAS applicants at the site was put on hold by the Department of Integration following a local outcry.

Accommodation costs

In terms of the rising cost of accommodating international protection applicants, a Department of Integration spokesperson said that “the average cost per night fluctuates due to changes in the number of residents and accommodation centres”. 

“Ireland has seen a sharp increase in the number of people applying for international protection since 2022,” they added.

In terms of privately-run centres replacing Ukrainian residents with asylum seekers, the spokesperson said that BOTP contracts may end “where compliance issues arise, or where the accommodation owner wishes to end or change their contract”.

“This means many properties can return to private use, tourism or student use, and a small proportion may be used for International Protection accommodation,” they said.