Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2018
102. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Justice and Equality when the contract values for direct provision centres for 2016 and 2017 will be released; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39248/18]
View answerAll accommodation centres for those persons seeking protection, whether State-owned or privately owned, are operated by commercial companies. There are currently 36 accommodation centres being operated (including the Reception Centre at Balseskin, Co. Dublin) under the direct provision system.
Extensive and detailed information on the amount paid by my Department to each company contracted to provide direct provision accommodation every year up to and including 2015 can be found on the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) website www.ria.gov.ie under the 'Contract Values' section of the website - http://www.ria.gov.ie/en/RIA/Pages/ContractValues.
This is in accordance with the RIA's policy on disclosure of financial information which was agreed with the Office of the Information Commissioner. Under this policy, a table of Contract Values is published on the RIA website, excluding the most recent previous two years. Therefore, in 2018, contract values up to 2015 were published on the website. Contract values for 2016 will be published in 2019 and contract values for 2017 will be published in 2020. The Deputy will appreciate that it is not appropriate to provide values for current contracts entered into by my Department. Negotiations take place with a number of commercial entities on an on-going basis with a clear focus on achieving the best value for money in respect of each contract. It is not in the interests of yielding best value for the taxpayer that details of current individual contracts are made available to other commercial bodies who are, or may be in the future, engaged in these negotiations.
