The reception and integration agency, RIA, which operates under the aegis of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is responsible for meeting the accommodation needs of asylum seekers. The RIA has advised me that it is accommodating approximately 180 persons in total from the ten new EU member states.
The position on the cohort of nationals of the ten new EU member states is that, since 1 May, their immigration status is underwritten by EU treaty rights, including a right to participate in the labour market. As no Irish citizen or EU citizen from any of the other 15 member states participating in the labour market is provided with full board accommodation on the style of the direct provision system funded by the taxpayer, it would be an inequity to facilitate the continuance of such an arrangement for nationals of the new EU member states. In the circumstances, the RIA has asked the nationals from these new EU member states to vacate their state funded direct provision accommodation as soon as practicably possible. The RIA will be following up on this in the coming weeks and will, of course, be cognisant of hardship cases.
The citizens of the ten new EU member states who were in direct provision prior to 1 May 2004 may be entitled to a range social assistance payments which are a matter, in the first instance, for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs.