Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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977. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated average cost of keeping an applicant for asylum in direct provision per year; and the total cost for same in each of the past five years. [1188/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is responsible for the costs associated with the provision of accommodation and ancillary services for international protection applicants in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).

The expenditure of my Department primarily relates to the running of the National Reception Centre at Balseskin; the contracting of commercial and emergency IPAS accommodation centres; the management, maintenance and utility costs of the seven State-owned accommodation centres; the provision of Covid-19 response centres for isolation and quarantine (during pandemic); the costs associated with the provision of PPE to residents (during pandemic); and grants to NGOs providing support services to residents in IPAS accommodation.

The total spend on IPAS accommodation in 2022 was €356,554,000. There were 19,202 people in IPAS accommodation on 31 December 2022. At a year end average of overall cost divided by the number of people residing in IPAS accommodation, the average annual figure for keeping an international protection applicant in IPAS accommodation for one year was €18,568.59.

The Deputy should bear in mind that the number of people who are resident in IPAS accommodation will vary day to day throughout the year as the number of daily arrivals increase on a cumulative basis. 2022 has seen a major increase in this respect.

Further information on previous years is included in tabular format below: