17 hours ago
What do State spending figures on refugee and asylum accommodation tell us?
The State spent more than €401 million on accommodation for International Protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees in the first three months of this year.
That's according to new figures released by the former Department of Integration detailing its spending for the first quarter of 2025.
It's an eye-watering amount of money but it is down on last year's quarterly spends on such accommodation, which ranged from €424m to €490m.
Paying for private sector accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers made up 97% of the Department's purchase order spends of €20,000 or more detailed in the report.
While hundreds of providers are in receipt of Government payments, 91 were paid more than €1m in the first quarter of this year, and together the top five brought in €52.5m.
The Government has said it wants to move away from its reliance on the private and commercial sector when it comes to accommodating refugees and asylum seekers.
To this end, the Minister for Justice announced this week that the Cabinet had signed off on his plan to buy Citywest, a campus that has been central to its International Protection and Ukrainian refugee accommodation provision over the last number of years.
Jim O'Callaghan announced that the State would buy the hotel and convention centre for the sum of €148.2m, describing it as "value for money".
Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited operates Citywest and over the last couple of years it was the State's top earner when it came to these accommodation contracts.
Last year it secured €70.86m in accommodation payments from the State, and it was at the top of the table once more in the first quarter of this year, getting paid €18.7m - almost double what the next best paid accommodation provider received.
Mr O'Callaghan said that "purchasing Citywest makes prudent financial sense for the State compared to costs of leasing the site" however it appears that there will still be some invoices forthcoming even after the sale.
According to the Department of Justice there will be a "a transition plan with the current service provider for a period of 12 months to ensure there is no disruption to the accommodation services at the site."
A statement added that "the service provider will continue to oversee the management and provision of services including catering, cleaning, maintenance and security, resident check-in, operational support, finance and other services."
The Department of Integration's quarterly purchase order report sheds some light on the current spend on additional Citywest expenses paid in January, February and March this year, including over €709,000 on security and €580,000 on meals.
In total, in the first quarter of this year the State spent over €267m on accommodation and related costs for International Protection applicants and almost €133m for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection.
Separately the Department also spent almost €1.7m on modular accommodation for International Protection applicants in the first quarter of 2025.
These figures are all inclusive of VAT.
After Citywest operator Cape Wrath Hotel Unlimited, Mosney Holidays PLC, was the next best paid accommodation provider in the first three months of 2025.
It was paid €9.7m for providing international protection accommodation at the former holiday resort in Co Meath.
The third highest paid provider was Holiday Inn Dublin Airport, which was paid €8.5m.
Over January, February and March, the report shows Travelodge Hotels, operated by Smorgs ROI Management Limited, were paid over €8m.
However, in this period there were also payments amounting to €3.6m made directly to Tifco Ltd which runs Travelodge Hotels among others, and of almost €1.85m made to Pumkinspice Ltd, which also operates a Travelodge Hotel in Dublin City Centre.
Rounding out the top five earners in the first quarter of 2025, East Coast Catering, which owns a number of hotels, was paid almost €7.5m.
Last year saw a record number of people seeking Protection in Ireland, 18,561.
However fewer asylum seekers are doing so this year.
Last year 9,199 people had sought asylum in Ireland by 31 May, compared to 5,037 in the same period this year.
But there's no denying that there a real demand for accommodation for asylum seekers.
As of the 4 May this year there were 32,934 people, including 9,442 children, living in International Protection accommodation.
For more than two years now most male asylum seekers who seek international protection in Ireland are not offered accommodation on arrival, with the Government citing an ongoing accommodation shortage.
As of Monday, the Department of Justice said there were 2,987 asylum seekers awaiting an offer of accommodation by the State.
Meanwhile, the number of Ukrainian refugees in State provided accommodation is down significantly from its peak of almost 60,000 at the end of 2023.
Since then, the State has limited free accommodation provision for new arrivals to three months and has cut supports for those in hotel style accommodation.
As of 1 June, there were 23,599 Ukrainian refugees in State provided accommodation.
