€80 Million Spent on Migrant Accommodation in Mayo in Two-Year Period – Lawless

Figures released to the Aontú TD for Mayo, Paul Lawless, show that nearly €80 million has been spent on accommodation for those seeking international protection in Mayo over a 24-month period between 2024 and 2025.

Responding to the new figures, Deputy Lawless said: “This is an eye-watering amount of money. The international protection accommodation system is not fit for purpose, and its dysfunction is costing the taxpayer heavily. The government is paying huge sums into the hands of private wealthy industrial style landlords, for temporary accommodation. €80 million of our taxpayer’s money has been spent in Mayo alone in just two years. Across the country over the past ten years €4 Billion has been spent on IPAS. The amount spent in Mayo over a two-year period would have been enough to build 230 houses for the county”.

Deputy Lawless continued: “This is wasted money. It’s money we will never see again. Why doesn’t the government spend this money on purchasing or building homes, that way the accommodation and infrastructure would be state-owned assets which we could use for decades into the future to house our homeless in the region. The amount the government has paid to some hotels in rent exceeds the actual value of the hotel in some instances. It is an atrocious waste of money”.

“We know too that the asylum system has long been abused by people who don’t actually qualify for asylum, and those who intentionally frustrate the process so as to delay the application process. People who engage in that kind of behaviour – destroying their travel documents and so on – are taking much needed resources from those who genuinely do need them, be it people genuinely fleeing war or indeed our own homeless population. It is Aontú’s position that those people who try to cheat the system by destroying their documents should be deported properly. We need a fair and just system”, concluded Lawless.

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For Oral Answer on : 19/03/2026
Question Number(s): 30 Question Reference(s): 20108/26
Department: Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
Asked by: Paul Lawless T.D.
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QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Justice; Home Affairs and Migration the total amount spent on accommodation for those seeking international protection in County Mayo in the past ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

Ireland has at all times endeavoured to provide accommodation and other basic supports to people seeking international protection as is required by law. The State is currently accommodating over 33,000 people in approximately 310 International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres around the country.

The accommodation system is managed on a national level, as is reporting on all aspects of the process. Accommodation providers and details of payments are recorded, but not by county. As such, the breakdown of data requested with respect to the total amount spent on accommodation for those seeking international protection in County Mayo in the past ten years is not collated or readily available.

An approximate figure has been collated, however, in respect of costs incurred in County Mayo drawn from available records, for the last two years, as follows.

Please see, in tabular format, the total spend on IPAS accommodation in commercial and State-owned accommodation since 2015.

Please note the 2025 figure is provisional pending completion of the 2025 Appropriation Accounts.

In terms of international protection applicants, significant reform is underway to speed up the processing system, achieve improved value for money for the State and reduce the demand for accommodation.  That includes moving away consistently, over time, from the degree of reliance on commercial accommodation and putting in place more facilities on State-owned sites.

IPAS is reviewing commercial contracts and driving improvements in standards, governance and compliance. The introduction of a new rate card model is driving down costs for new and renewed contracts, already saving approximately €83 million since May 2025.

The allocation for IPAS accommodation and supports for 2025 was €1.2 billion and this has reduced to an allocation of over €1.1 billion for accommodation and supports in 2026.