Bill for accommodating asylum seekers topped €1bn for first time last year

The €2.75m daily average spend is revealed in new figures provided by the Integration Minister Norma Foley. Picture: Leah Farrell/ RollingNews.ie

The annual State spend in accommodating international protection applicants last year topped €1bn for the first time.

The €2.75m daily average spend is revealed in new figures provided by the Integration Minister Norma Foley.

The figures show the €1.005bn spend was a 54% increase on the €651.75m paid out in 2023 on international protection applicants.

Ms Foley said since the start of 2019, the State has spent €2.5bn in accommodating international protection applicants. It has risen from just €129m in 2019.

She said the average daily cost of accommodating individuals in 2024 was €84 and this was a 9% increase on the €76.80 daily cost for 2023.

In her written reply to Aontú's Peadar Tóibín, she said the spend includes all accommodation and ancillary costs, such as facilities management and other related expenditure.

“The average cost per night fluctuates due to a wide range of factors, including the number of residents and the nature of type of accommodation centres developed and contracted with.” 

On the escalating costs of accommodating international protection applicants, Ms Foley said “it is important to note that in the period from 2022 onward, numbers of international protection applicants increased sharply, creating an increase in overall costs directly related to this increase”.

She said by way of illustration that, at the end of 2021, International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) accommodated just over 7,000 people, and today that has risen to almost 33,000.

Of those being accommodated now, about 9,000 are children with their families.

Separately, Ms Foley told Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy in another written Dáil reply, that since the start of 2022, €239m has been paid out by the State to 22,399 accommodation providers here for accommodating 49,840 people in a programme aimed at accommodating Ukrainians.

The €239m pay-out is through an accommodation recognition payment, which is a monthly payment of €800 available to those who are providing accommodation to a person or people who arrived in Ireland under the EU Temporary Protection Directive.