Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
308. Deputy Pat Buckley asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of residents living in a facility (details supplied), including children and adults; the capacity of the centre; the cost of providing for this centre annually; if the building is owned by the State; if it was sold; if so, the person or body it was sold to; and the amount. [49310/18]
View answerAll accommodation centres for those persons seeking protection, whether State-owned or privately owned, are operated by commercial companies. There are currently 38 accommodation centres being used to provide accommodation to persons seeking international protection in Ireland.
The accommodation centre in question opened in September of this year in response to a call for expressions of interest to meet an urgent need for accommodation for persons entering the state and seeking international protection.
The Centre is privately owned and operated and provides accommodation, under contract to my Department, to 54 persons (30 adults and 24 children) in the 13 apartments in the complex.
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 RIA website www.ria.gov.ie under the 'Contract Values' section - the 2016 information will be available shortly.
This is in accordance with the Reception & Integration Agency's policy on disclosure of financial information which was agreed with the Office of the Information Commissioner. Negotiations take place with a number of commercial entities on an ongoing 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.
