There are about 500 people in State-funded facilities for those seeking international protection who have received deportation orders, the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told.
The committee was also told by the Department of Justice on Thursday there are about 5,000 people in accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) who have received permission to remain in Ireland.
The Department of Justice told PAC chairman John Brady there were a number of reasons why people who have received deportation orders remained in IPAS facilities.
“Sometime that suits us. Obviously if we are going to do a deportation charter, it is convenient for people”, secretary general of the Department of Justice Oonagh McPhillips said.
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Deputy secretary general Doncha O’Sullivan said in some cases a person might have continuing legal action and there would be an injunction against removing them.
In other circumstances, he said, an individual may be on the books of an IPAS centre, but when gardaí went to arrest them they would not be there.
He said there could also be situations where a person was receiving long-term medical treatment, which may make their removal from the State very difficult.
Ms Phillips said while one family member may have a deportation order, others may be at a different stage of the application process.
A number of committee members raised concerns about processes for assessing the age of unaccompanied asylum seekers to avoid dangers of adults mingling with children in centres for minors.
Ms McPhillips said it was her understanding such assessments were the responsibility of Tusla, the child and family agency.
Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan said Tusla had given evidence to the Oireachtas Justice Committee that, under current legislation, responsibility rested with the International Protection Office, which comes under the Department of Justice.
Ms McPhillips said her understanding was the Department of Justice referred such children to Tusla, who made the assessment.
She told Aiden Farrelly of the Social Democrats that, in making such an assessment, Tusla would give the benefit of the doubt to the applicant where a doubt existed.
“In lots of cases they would form the view that if the person is an adult they would return the person to us and they would be accommodated in IPAS accommodation. But if it is a very borderline case, they would give the benefit of the doubt to the potential child.”
Mr O’Sullivan said at present the process for such age verification was “not as fast as it should be”. He said under planned new legislation, muti-disciplinary teams would make such assessments.
Ms McPhillips said between 2022 and 2024, 159,000 people arrived in Ireland seeking either temporary or international protection, including 114,000 from Ukraine, and this had placed “exceptional demands” on the systems in place.
She said “parts of the system were not brought on in the ideal configurations, nor at the value for public money we could expect to achieve in more normal times”.
Albert Dolan of Fianna Fáil said the top 25 suppliers of accommodation had over the last decade received €2 billion in payments from the State.
“The rule book was thrown out, the chequebook brought out and anyone who had any accommodation was being paid head over heels to take people who were coming in”.
Ms McPhillips said, given the crisis situation, “providers had the whip hand”.
Mr Dolan asked whether some people were now suing the Department of Justice for not awarding them IPAS accommodation contracts. Ms McPhillips said there were a number of such cases but she could not go into details as they were before the courts.
