INSPECTION PROCESS: how it is supposed to work

The accommodation network is the centrepiece of the "direct provision" system, introduced in 2000, which provides asylum seekers with housing, meals and a weekly allowance of €19.10 for each adult and €9.60 for each child.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to take on paid work and, since 2004, their children are not entitled to child benefit.

The centres are overseen by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), an arm of the Department of Justice that is charged with agreeing contracts with the commercial management firms, hoteliers, churches and catering companies that run the centres for the State.

To monitor compliance with rules on food hygiene, water supply and general safety, the RIA carries out inspections both by its own staff and by the independent assessors QTS Ltd.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice told The Irish Timesthat "as far as possible, every effort is made to inspect accommodation centres approximately three times annually. Each centre is inspected twice by the internal RIA inspection team and once by the independent inspection company QTS."

However, the department's annual report shows that, last year, only 97 inspections were carried out for 54 centres.

While the RIA has the right to terminate contracts where breaches in standards are not remedied within a specified period, the agency has told The Irish Timesthat no contract has been terminated "as a result of inspection issues" since direct provision was introduced.

The Department of Justice spent more than €78 million last year on accommodating 5,489 asylum seekers in State- and commercially owned centres.

Whereas in 2004 there were 84 centres around the State, as of March this year there were only 56, a trend that reflects the general fall in the number of people seeking asylum here in recent years. Last year fewer than 4,500 applications were made, compared with about 11,500 in 2002.