Paul McGrath
Question:322 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the criteria used when housing asylum seekers in small towns in the west. [13508/04]
View answerTuesday, 11 May 2004
Questions (291)
Written answers
The Reception and Integration Agency, RIA, which operates under the aegis of my Department, is responsible for meeting the accommodation and related ancillary needs of asylum seekers under the system of direct provision. In this regard, the RIA is currently providing accommodation for approximately 6, 400 asylum seekers in 71 accommodation centres located across 24 of the Twenty-six counties.
The RIA continues to operate against a backdrop of a severe shortage of accommodation of all tenures throughout the State as it seeks to meet the needs of asylum seekers, of whom approximately 400 arrive each month. In effect, the RIA is to a very significant extent reliant on the accommodation and related facilities offered to it on a contractual basis by private sector operators.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the RIA's policy in relation to accommodation procurement and placements is to ensure, in as much as possible, the maintenance of a sensitive, balanced and proportionate approach nationwide.
In procuring direct provision accommodation and ancillary facilities, specific regard is had to the following: type of accommodation being offered — hotel, guest house hostel etc.; location; local population and numbers of asylum seekers, if any, already residing in the area; local infrastructure — transport, schools, hospitals, shops etc.; facility being offered by proprietor — recreation, communal rooms, en suites etc.; facilities for other agencies — health boards, refugee legal services etc.
Finally, the RIA does not place asylum seekers in the private rented sector. Any such accommodation arrangements are made by asylum applicants themselves on foot of rent supplement payments made by the health boards. The RIA has no role in this regard nor in regard to where individual asylum seekers who are in receipt of any such payments take up accommodation.