New asylum-seeker accommodation agency is under consideration

The Government is to begin work on the feasibility of setting up a dedicated agency to handle migrant accommodation.

A scoping exercise was undertaken last year, and in a note prepared for Cabinet last week, Ministers were told “work is now beginning to examine the feasibility of establishing such a migration accommodation agency”.

Any proposals would need full government approval before proceeding.

[ Long-awaited immigration plan will commit to avoiding use of ‘last hotel’ in a town for asylum seekers ]

The Government now believes it will have to deal with between 13,000 and 16,000 asylum seekers coming to Ireland annually, four times what it had planned for in a previous strategy to dismantle the direct provision system.

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The influx of refugees from the war in Ukraine and people seeking international protection has put major pressure on the Department of Integration, which has been forced to devise policy and also find tens of thousands of beds while managing contracts with hundreds of different accommodation operators, as well as trying to secure community acceptance.

[ State to spend €5bn housing asylum seekers over next 20 years, Ministers told ]

Introducing an agency could form part of moving to a new operating model, with the Cabinet last week approving a new strategy that will seek to move away from reliance on the private sector.

The department said it was “considering options around the future operating model” for accommodating migrants, but cautioned that no decision had been taken on whether an agency would be established, saying that any further steps would be subject to a full government decision.

“This work is in its early stages and no decisions around direction of travel have been made as yet, including the establishment of a dedicated migration accommodation agency.”

Under plans brought to the Government last week by Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, the Government committed to build out a core accommodation offering of 14,000 beds in State-owned facilities by 2028.

It comes as new figures from the department reveal that it paid more than €53 million to the owner of Dublin’s Citywest hotel last year to accommodate asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees.

Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited, which is owned by investment group Tetrarch Capital and runs the 764-bed Citywest hotel and convention centre in Saggart, Co Dublin, received €53.7 million in payments in 2023 to provide board and accommodation to international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees.

[ Surge in prosecutions of asylum seekers arriving without passports ]

The latest Department of Integration quarterly purchase orders figures, covering all of last year, reveal large hotel groups and companies were paid tens of millions of euro in Government contracts to provide accommodation for people seeking asylum and Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection.

A department spokesperson said that a total of €1.49 billion was spent last year on accommodation for those fleeing the war in Ukraine and a further €640 million on accommodation for international protection applicants.

More than 28,100 international protection applicants are currently living in State-provided accommodation, while the State is also accommodating 74,500 Ukrainians.

Ministers were also told last week that €5 billion would be spent accommodating asylum seekers in State-owned properties in the coming decades – although this would be significantly cheaper than sourcing beds in the private sector.

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