Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 June 2022
1. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Question No. 146 of 18 May 2022, his views on the different categories of accommodation listed therein (details supplied) and their function. [28271/22]
View answerMy question is further to a previous parliamentary question I asked the Minister regarding making a statement on the different categories of accommodation currently listed, such as emergency reception and orientation centres, EROCs, emergency accommodation, etc., as well as their functions.
I will list and describe the various categories of such accommodation. There are seven State-owned accommodation centres in the interactional protection accommodation services, IPAS, portfolio. These buildings are owned by the State and companies are contracted as service providers at each of those centres. Commercial centres are privately owned and operated accommodation centres. EROCs refer to centres for refugees coming under the auspices of the international refugee protection programme, IRPP.
When programme refugees are accepted in Ireland under the IRPP, they are generally accommodated in EROCs for some six to 12 months. This allows for initial orientation and assessment and access to services such as health and social welfare. Adults are provided with English language lessons and children attend primary school in the EROCs and local secondary schools. This time provides refugees with an opportunity to acclimatise in cultural terms, as well as to recover from the trauma associated with their journey to that point. It also provides refugees with an opportunity to assess necessary basic services in advance of their resettlement within the wider community.
Then we have emergency accommodation centres, which are temporary accommodation locations used by IPAS to provide accommodation where the permanent IPAS accommodation centres are at capacity. These premises include hotel and guesthouse accommodation.
We also have quarantine and isolation accommodation, which was accommodation used during the Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate initial isolation of new arrivals to the State as part of the IPAS response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The specific hotels are no longer quarantine centres as there is no longer quarantine for new arrivals. These centres are now being used for pre-reception. Pre-reception accommodation is accommodation put in place to provide initial accommodation to new arrivals where there is no available space in the national reception centre in Balseskin. My Department has contracted NGO support at these locations to assist with meeting the needs of the residents at those locations. Nine such centres are now operating.
No one was ever going to be in any doubt that there would be an increase in the number of people coming into the country to seek asylum following Covid-19. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated this situation. The crisis has posed some serious questions. We can address some of those in another question later perhaps. What is concerning in this regard, though, is that we may end up being stuck in the same cycle as we experienced several years ago. That crisis came to a head with the situation in Cahersiveen. It seems now, however, that we are back to a situation where large-scale profits will be made in this context and refugees will be housed in hotels. There is no own-door accommodation or cooking facilities and people are being accommodated away from essential services in locations where there is a lack of transport and so on. Does the Minister think we are making the same mistake in this regard all over again? What is the Department doing to address this situation?
Undoubtedly, there is a challenge being faced now. It one caused by the combination of the war in Ukraine and other major international conflicts, such those in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, that are generating greater movements of people. There are also issues in respect of changes in approaches to immigration and asylum law in other countries that are having an impact here as well. Therefore, we are undoubtedly under pressure. What is different is that in previous times there was an acceptance that direct provision was the way to go and that it was just a question then of letting the system grow to deal with an increase.
As the Deputy is aware, and this aspect will be discussed in the next question I will answer from Deputy Bríd Smith, we are seeking to end direct provision. We have a White Paper and a proposal in place to end direct provision. The crisis in Ukraine is undoubtedly putting pressure on that undertaking and we will talk more about this aspect in a few moments. There is, though, this central view regarding ending direct provision and the work we are doing to achieve that goal is being done in conjunction with the NGOs, those organisations that have so much experience in this area on the ground.
The White Paper that came out approximately 14 months ago was clear about emergency accommodation. It recommended that purpose-built facilities be constructed. Sinn Féin's view is that there should be more State-run accommodation centres, because allowing private companies that operate for profit to undertake this endeavour is not going to be the best way to address this situation. The Minister previously said that funding for approved housing body, AHB, accommodation was going to be launched soon. What are his plans in this regard? The State needs to play a greater role in this context or else we will find ourselves back, effectively, at Groundhog Day in respect of the mistakes made over the past two decades.
The State must undoubtedly play a greater role but it needs to be a role centred on an approach based on human rights and an approach that believes in integration from day one. This is not solely a matter of accommodation, and I know the Deputy is not suggesting it is. Accommodation is important, but so are integration supports and ensuring that people seeking international protection are not isolated while waiting for decisions at the edge of towns and villages and instead are fully integrated in our communities. We will be bringing forward details of the funding model for AHB accommodation and builds later this year. Significant work has been done in this regard and it has been done with the AHBs to ensure we are creating a funding model of beneficial use to them. In that context, we have done significant work with the AHBs and with the Housing Agency on how to design the best model.
