14,000 State beds targeted for asylum seekers by 2028
MORE than 7,000 new beds for asylum seekers are expected to be contracted within the next 18 months, as the Government seeks to move off an emergency footing on immigration.
Almost 5,000 asylum seekers have arrived here since the start of 2024, but accommodation pressures have left over 1,000 living on the streets.
The Government has committed to increasing the number of State-owned accommodations for asylum seekers from 1,180 to 14,000 over the next four years as it moves to stop relying on privately owned centres.
The State is now estimating that Ireland could see up to 16,000 International Protection applicants a year and is beefing up the supply.
Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, launching his new strategy yesterday, said that even before recent surge in arrivals, the system was ‘desperately in need of reform’ but added it is now ‘at crisis point’.
He said: ‘The strategy will allow us to develop a system where the State holds the reins on accommodation, its location and its standards.’
This comes as the number of International Protection applicants coming here could be slashed in half under new EU migration rules.
The Government agreed Ireland will opt in to the EU migration pact which will crack down on people arriving here without passports and those who have already transited through or sought asylum in another EU state.
Justice officials said ‘anywhere between 50% and 70%’ of international protection applicants come to Ireland as a result of ‘secondary movements’, travelling here after arriving in another safe country. The new rules mean these applicants can be sent back to the first country they landed in, or they will not reach Ireland in the first place.
Department of Integration sources indicated that more than 7,000 beds could be contracted in the next 18 months, bringing our total capacity to over 35,000.
Currently 28,181 beds are available in the International Protection Accommodation System, with 1,465 male asylum seekers without a bed since December. Since the start of this year, a record 4,900 asylum seekers have arrived here seeking International Protection.
Social Democrats spokeswoman on integration Jennifer Whitmore said: ‘The long overdue strategy is underwhelming and deeply concerning. Pushing targets for delivery out to 2028 while we are in the midst of a crisis points to a Government that is floundering.
‘The minister tells us he will deliver 14,000 State-owned beds by 2028. Yet, we have been waiting since 2021 for the minister to deliver approximately 3,500 beds in six State-owned reception and integration centres and the minister can’t even tell us where those beds will be located.’
The Government’s new accommodation strategy revises the commitments made in a White Paper on ending Direct Provision in 2021 and was based on just 3,500 arrivals here each year.
The new strategy has quadrupled the targeted number of State-owned beds set out in the White Paper. It was a commitment of the Programme for Government to end the direct provision system of accommodating those seeking refuge from conflict and persecution.
The Department of Integration is expected to spend €80million over the next two years acquiring and building new centres to reach 14,000 by 2028. This new plan still relies on 21,000 commercially provided beds in the system in 2028. The strategy also commits ‘to end the use of unsuitable accommodation options currently relied upon, such as the sole hotel remaining in a given town’.
Accommodation will be delivered through use of State land for prefabricated and modular units, conversion of commercial buildings and the purchase of larger turnkey properties. Several State-owned sites have been identified, with the first to be brought into use within months.
‘Overdue strategy is underwhelming’