Written answer
International Protection
The Minister said student accommodation is not designated for IPAS use, but the Department does not track former accommodation purposes, while State-owned capacity is expanding.
830. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to provide a list of student accommodation facilities which are currently in use housing IPAS applicants and not available to students for the 2026-2027 school year. [64376/26]
Comment on this
921. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to provide a list of student accommodation facilities which are currently in use housing IPAS applicants and not available to students for the 2026-2027 school year; and the number of student beds no longer available to students as they are in use as IPAS accommodation. [64375/26]
Comment on this
I propose to take Questions Nos. 830 and 921 together.
Ireland provides accommodation and other basic supports to people seeking international protection, as is required by law.
The State is currently accommodating nearly 32,000 people in 297 International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres around the country. Student accommodation is a category of accommodation that is not accepted by the Department for appraisal as IPAS accommodation.
Existing IPAS accommodation centres are provided within a range of settings, and many of these centres have been in existence for a very extended period. The Department does not routinely collate accommodation centre data categorised by their former use, including student accommodation. Most IPAS centres are provided in former tourism accommodation locations like hotels, guesthouses and other settings like converted commercial or institutional buildings.
Alongside other reforms underway across the international protection system, the Programme for Government commits to reducing the use of commercially contracted international protection accommodation, and to providing more State-owned accommodation.
The purchase of the Citywest Reception Centre in 2025 was an important step in this strategy, and increased State-owned beds to 4,000 in 2025, compared to 900 in early 2024.
While commissioning emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be necessary in the short to medium term, it is being contracted on a short-term basis, which will enable the State to decommission this capacity as State-owned beds increase, contracts expire, or demand fluctuates.
The new International Protection Act 2026 gives effect to the measures of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. The new rules came into effect on 12 June. Reforming and speeding up processing of applications should also serve over time to reduce the scale of the demand for international protection accommodation.