More than 90 properties offered for asylum seeker accommodation

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

The Government is examining more than 90 submissions for properties to lease or purchase for asylum seeker accommodation.

At the end of April, The Department of Integration opened a submission process in a bid to source suitable properties for acquisition or lease as International Protection accommodation.

As of August 26th, the EOI has received 91 submissions.

It is now evaluating the submissions received against a set of essential criteria to ensure compliance with national standards and mandatory requirements.

Once this initial assessment stage has been completed, a number of proposals may not progress any further.

All proposals deemed to have met the essential criteria will then move to a second assessment stage where a more detailed analysis will be undertaken including technical due diligence, property value, likely timeline and planning compliance, in addition to numerous further due diligence and financial protocols.

Only properties that move through these gateways will be proposed as appropriate for purchase or lease.

A Department spokesman said: “Should a building progress to a point where it may be used, the Department’s Community Engagement Team will contact local public representatives and statutory agencies.”

Meanwhile, the Department is working on establishing several “reception centres” as part of its response to a crisis in asylum seeker accommodation.

Asked on Friday if any of these new centres will be operational before the general election, which must be held by March at the latest, Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman said work “will have initiated”.

He told RTÉ radio that he had not made any statement saying the centres would be delivered before the election.