Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2023
921. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there are plans to allow asylum seekers to engage with homeless services at local authority-level, based on the outcomes of the Advisory Group on the Provision of Support including Accommodation to Persons in the International Protection Process. [12883/23]
View answerDecisions on who is eligible to engage with homeless services are matters for the Minister for Housing.
As the Deputy will be aware, the response to the ongoing migration crisis has entered an extremely difficult phase, with no apparent accommodation for international protection applicants (IPAs) at scale available into the short term to medium term.
The overflow facility at the Citywest Transit Hub has reached capacity and it became necessary to pause arrival of new (IPAs) into the facility from 24 January.
The Department can confirm that there are currently 295 international protection applicants who have not been accommodated since the paused entry to Citywest came into effect on 24 January.
A total of 322 IPAs who were previously unaccommodated have since been accommodated.
IPAS is working intensively to procure additional emergency accommodation for those who have not been accommodated since the paused entry to Citywest began. IPAS are currently contacting people who have arrived on 13 February to offer them accommodation and are operating a strict queueing system in chronological order of arrival date to ensure fairness. Intensive efforts are being undertaken daily by staff in DCEDIY to source emergency accommodation. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country. There have been over 90 accommodation locations utilised since January 2022 across 17 counties.
