Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2020
530. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of persons that died while residing in direct provision for each of the past five years; and the breakdown by cause of death, age, nationality and geographical location. [39821/20]
View answerAll deaths and serious incidents that occur within accommodation centres provided by my Department are referred to An Garda Síochána as a matter of course, who in turn refer all deaths to the relevant Coroner’s office.
As is the case with all such matters, the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) is not privy to information pertaining to individual investigations carried out under the remit of the Gardaí or the Coroners. IPAS provides information to An Garda Síochána and the Coroner’s Office as and when requested.
All records of deaths in Ireland are held in the General Register Office, which is the central civil repository for records relating to Births, Marriages and Deaths. My Department does not have an official role in the collation of statistics on deaths of International Protection applicants. IPAS, and the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) before it, may not have always been informed of the death of a resident in previous years, for example if the death occurred in a hospital or other setting. As a consequence, I cannot provide details of deaths since 2015 of such people whose place of residence at the time was in accommodation provided by IPAS/RIA.
The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) of my Department introduced its Critical Incident Policy on 29 November 2019. The Policy provides that once notified of a death or other serious incident, IPAS will record the incident. The Critical Incident Policy also sets out the guidelines for centre managers on what to do should a death occur in their premises. However, it should be noted that it is the Office of the Coroner who makes the official record of deaths. The IPAS record is only of deaths notified and it is not an official record.
Sadly, five deaths have been so notified to the IPAS since the introduction of its Critical Incident Policy in November 2019. Of these, one death occurred last year and a further four deaths have occurred this year.
