Asylum seekers would get own-door housing under plans for reform of direct provision

ASYLUM seekers would be given own-door accommodation after three months, and long waits for decisions would be banned under sweeping reforms proposed for the direct-provision system.

An expert group has called on the State to overhaul Ireland’s “dysfunctional” direct provision model and replace it with a new permanent system by 2023 that would make local councils legally responsible for finding own-door accommodation for asylum seekers.

Former secretary general of the European Commission Catherine Day, who led the group, said its recommendations had already prompted “quite a lot of concern” in the Department of Housing over how accommodation would be found during a housing crisis.

Direct-provision centres, many of which are run by private companies paid by the Government, would be replaced with State-owned reception centres where up to 3,500 asylum seekers a year would spend their first three months after applying for leave to remain in Ireland.

After three months, asylum seekers would be moved to own-door temporary accommodation spread across the country. They would be housed in areas where they could integrate with local people.

Asylum seekers would get an allowance while staying in reception centres, which would change to housing and social welfare payments once they were in their own accommodation.

Local councils would use private rental accommodation to house asylum seekers, in a similar way to how homeless people are housed in private rental tenancies through Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

Dr Day said there had been some concerns from Government over plans for own-door accommodation during a housing crisis.

She said her expert group was careful not to do anything that would create the impression of asylum seekers having an advantage in accessing housing.

She said her group was recommending a HAP-style scheme, because it was the approach “least likely” to cause a xenophobic backlash.

“It doesn’t mean that there is any jumping of the local housing authority list,” she said.

She said that if the Government was committed to ending direct provision, her group had understood that to mean moving away from congregated accommodation.

“The only other option… is own-door accommodation,” she said.

Long waits for asylum decisions, which have left some people living in direct provision for years, would also be banned under the proposals.

The group said there should be a binding six-month limit on asylum decisions, followed by another six-month deadline on appeals. It said that the current backlog of cases should be cleared by the end of 2022 “at the latest”.

It suggested a one-off system where unaccompanied minors and anyone who has been in direct provision for more than two years would be given leave to remain for five years “after security vetting”.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the Government would look at the recommendation but “at this moment in time it’s not something that I can give a commitment to”.

‘It doesn’t mean that there is any jumping of the local housing authority list’