State spent over €1bn housing IP applicants last year

In 2024, Irish housing International Protection (IP) applicants amounted to over €1 billion for the first time, averaging a daily expenditure of approximately €2.75 million. This is a significant improvement over the €651.75 million in spending in 2023. The cumulative total to date starting in 2019 is a total of €2.5 billion, a massive surge compared to the spending of €129 million in 2019.

The per day per IP applicant spending is up to €84 in 2024, compared to €76.80 in 2023. This is largely explained by a dramatic increase in IP applicants; at year’s end in 2021, IPAS sheltered just over 7,000, a number that is now up to close to 33,000, of whom around 9,000 are children.

The nationality of IPAS residents is Nigeria (6,914 persons), Georgia (3,072), Algeria (2,733), Somalia (2,388), Zimbabwe (2,209), Jordan (2,157), Afghanistan (1,715), Pakistan (1,656), Bangladesh (1,373), and South Africa (1,249). Significantly, three of these, namely South Africa, Georgia, and Algeria, are ‘Safe Countries.’

As per Irish and EU law, it is mandatory to provide IP applicants with reception conditions such as accommodation and basic support. Currently, over 90% of IPAS accommodation is commercially sourced, a small percentage on state-owned properties. There is a vision to move towards a more sustainable system in order to reduce reliance over time on commercial providers.

Separately, since 2022, the state has paid a total of €239 million to 22,399 accommodation providers to accommodate a total of 49,840 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs), predominantly of Ukrainian origin. The Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) is a monthly payment of €800 to hosts of status recipients of the EU Temporary Protection Directive. There are over 15,500 hosts sheltering close to 36,000 BOTPs in over 19,000 accommodations.

Dublin has the most ARP recipients (4,518), followed by Cork (1,828), Donegal (1,305), Mayo (1,266), Galway (1,133), Kildare (1,029), and Kerry (1,022).

The ARP is set to expire on March 31, 2025, although there is a push to extend it.