The annual State spend on accommodating International Protection (IP) applicants topped €1 billion for the first time last year, new figures show.
An average spend of €2.75 million per day in accommodating IP applicants was recorded last year, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Norma Foley said.
Figures provided to Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín show a total spend of €1.005 billion last year, up 54 per cent on the €651.75 million cost in 2023.
Since the start of 2019, Ms Foley said, the State has spent €2.5 billion accommodating IP applicants. The cost has risen from €129 million in 2019.
Ms Foley told Mr Tóibín that the average daily cost of accommodating individual IP applicants last year was €84, a 9 per cent increase on the rate in 2023.
In her written reply, Ms Foley said the daily 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,” she said.
Ms Foley stated that by way of illustration at the end of 2021, International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) accommodated just over 7,000 people, and today, almost 33,000 IP applicants are provided with accommodation.
The most recent figures show there were 6,914 people from Nigeria living in IPAS accommodation, followed by Georgia (3,072), Algeria (2,733), Somalia (2,388) and Zimbabwe, (2,209).
On the escalating costs of accommodating IP applicants, Ms Foley said: “It is important to note that in the period from 2022 onward, numbers of international protection applicants increased sharply, and created an increase in overall costs directly related to this increase”.
She said that out of the overall total being accommodated, about 9,000 are children with their families.
Ms Foley pointed out that “providing reception conditions – accommodation and other basic supports – to people seeking international protection is part of Irish and EU law and is also part of our humanitarian duty to provide shelter to people fleeing war and persecution in their home country”.
She said: “At the moment, over 90 per cent of all IPAS accommodation is provided commercially. A small proportion of our accommodation is provided on state-owned sites, but the development of a sustainable accommodation system over the coming months and years will see less reliance on commercial providers over time.
Separately, Mr Foley told Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy in another written Dáil reply that since the start of 2022, €239 million has been paid out by the State to 22,399 accommodation providers here for accommodating 49,840 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) in a programme aimed at accommodating Ukrainians.
The €239 million payout is through an Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) 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.
Ms Foley stated that more than 15,500 hosts are accommodating almost 36,000 BOTPs in over 19,000 accommodations.
She stated that ARP does not create a landlord and tenant relationship between the accommodation host who has qualified for the financial contribution and the Ukrainians living in the accommodation, and it does not provide an automatic right to tenancy.
The figures provided by Ms Foley show that Dublin has the highest number of people receiving the ARP at 4,518 followed by Cork (1,828), Donegal (1,305), Mayo (1,266), Galway (1,133), Kildare (1,029) and Kerry (1,022).
