Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 November 2019
273. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the amount that has been paid to private companies for services relating to direct provision from 2014 to date in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46638/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraAll accommodation centres for people seeking international protection, whether State-owned or privately owned, are operated by commercial companies. There are currently 39 accommodation centres being operated under the direct provision system.
My Department contracts for an all-inclusive service, which includes catering services, as well as cleaning, maintenance and laundry services. 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 'Contract Values' section of the following website www.ria.gov.ie. This is in accordance with the Department's policy on the disclosure of financial information, which was agreed with the Office of the Information Commissioner.
The Deputy will appreciate that it is not appropriate to provide the current individual contract values 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.
The following table provides a breakdown of my Department's expenditure on the ‘direct provision’ system in the years 2014 to end of September 2019.
|
Expenditure Type |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 (to end September) |
|
Accommodation(including commercial, State-owned and self-catering). Emergency accommodation costs are included from September 2018 when such accommodation was first utilised. |
€51.071m |
€54.895m |
€60.237m |
€65.407m |
€76.057m |
€79.978m |
|
Pre-school (contributions towards some costs) |
€0.101m |
€0.127m |
€0.112m |
€0.095m |
€0.107m |
€0.071m |
|
Additional costs at State-owned centres (incl. gas, oil, water, sewage, etc) |
€1.972m |
€1.879m |
€3.558m |
€1.742m |
€1.512m |
€1.204m |
|
Transport costs(under dispersal policy) |
€0.046m |
€0.103m |
€0.129m |
€0.093m |
€0.182m |
€0.382m |
|
Miscellaneous (payments for personal hygiene products, grants to organisations and miscellaneous costs) |
0.027m |
0.021m |
0.011m |
€0.022m |
€0.135 |
€0.488m |
|
Total Expenditure |
€53.217m |
€57.025m |
€64.137m |
€67.539m |
€77.933m |
€82.123m |
The 2017 and 2018 figures include an amount of €7.728m and €7.550m respectively for designated Emergency Reception and Orientation Centres (EROC). The corresponding figure for 2019, to end September, is €5.524m.
