Sites of 1.5 plus acres sought for asylum seekers

Sites of one-and-a-half acres or more on which to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers are currently being sought by the Directorate for Asylum Support Services. A spokesperson from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which oversees the Directorate, says that the accommodation will be "a mix of mobile homes and prefabricated buildings".

The sites considered will have to be "reasonably close to some sort of social infrastructure like shops, schools and other public services", according to the Department spokesperson, and will have to be located near water, power and drainage services. On the basis of the current inflow of asylum applicants, it is estimated that the Government will have to find accommodation for 8,000 asylum seekers this year.

Previous media appeals have failed to secure a sufficient supply of suitable privately-owned accommodation and the Government claims this shortage has forced them to look at other short to medium-term solutions.

Temporary accommodation will be provided on a full-board basis, supplemented by welfare payments of £15 a week per adult and £7.50 a week per child. The provision of necessary services, like laundry, will be contracted out to private suppliers.

The Directorate is looking for land suitable to both lease and purchase but at this stage cannot say how much it is willing to pay for sites, stating only that "each case will be looked at individually". The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform will take responsibility for any planning issues that may arise.

As part of a dispersal policy, urged by the UN High Commission for Refugees to avoid the formation of ghettoes, applications are encouraged from all parts of the country, although Department sources say that isolated locations without services will not be considered. They say it is "impossible to predict at this stage" how long asylum seekers will be housed at these temporary sites.

Mobile homes have been ordered for three Government-owned sites, which will cater for 1,000 refugees between them, and work is currently underway to provide electricity and sewage services. Two of the sites are owned by the Department of Defence - lands attached to Magee Barracks in Co Kildare and lands attached to the military barracks in Tralee, Co Kerry. A third will be beside the Department of Education premises in Athlone, Co Westmeath.

In March three orders were made under Section 2(2) of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1993 which allows, "by reason of emergency", for the provision of accommodation for use by asylum seekers on these properties. Other measures to house asylum seekers by the Department include the purchase of hotels and other accommodation centres, while applications for asylum are being processed: prefabricated system-built homes will house a total of 4,000 refugees; mobile homes will house 1,000 refugees; hotels/guest-houses and hostels will shelter 2,000 applicants; and the number accommodated at flotels is expected to total 1,000.