State to provide 14,000 new beds for asylum seekers

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Author: JENNIFER BRAY
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

A new plan to accommodate asylum seekers will see the State provide 14,000 beds by the end of 2028, as part of a wider plan to make 35,000 spaces available across the system

Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said the new beds will be delivered through a mix of building and buying. New spaces in reception and integration centres will be delivered through acquiring larger turnkey properties, taking over empty offices and commercial buildings, and rolling out rapid builds on State-owned lands.

The Department of Integration plans to lease two locations from the HSE and one from the Department of Justice. Rapid build prefabs will be built on this land. The HSE sites identified include Crooksling, near Dublin, and one near Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow.

The plan is based on projections that a system with capacity for up to 35,000 asylum seekers will be needed by the end of 2028. That is assuming that between 13,000 and 16,000 asylum seekers arrive on average per year between 2024 and 2028, and that people granted refugee status move from their accommodation.

Accommodation centres

Each international protection applicant will be...