Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2023
229. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of offers of accommodation for refugees that remain unanswered by his Department and relevant agencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6406/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has now contracted in excess of 42,000 beds with over 700 providers to accommodate approximately 53,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection. As part of the whole of Government humanitarian response, my Department launched an updated commercial accommodation offer management process on 23 January 2023. The objective of this updated approach is to streamline the offer process and deliver greater efficiencies.
The updated offer submission form available on gov.ie provides a single route for submission of an offer. The new process provides greater guidance on what my Department will contract, signposts providers to other channels across government which may be more appropriate to their offer and enables a timely review of all offers submitted through the new portal. The new process is used for all new and resubmitted offers and for offers of additional rooms in a property my Department is already in contract with.
I am advised by my officials that as of 7 February, 260 offers have been received. The triage team are working at pace to respond to providers within 3-5 working days to progress/reject offers and providing clear communications on follow up steps. It should be noted that approximately one-third of offers received through the new process are legacy offers that are being reviewed and approximately 20% of offers received are rejected as invalid. These offers are largely small residential private homes or apartments with limited bed capacity.
I am advised that the relevant team are also processing a backlog of approximately 40 offers prior to the new portal going live and are endeavouring to review and clear these offers as swiftly as possible. The focus of offers being advanced by my Department are those which can be accessed by BOTPs without delay. Offers which involve refurbishment are considered by the Accommodation Working Group established by Department of an Taoiseach.
