{"id":198976,"date":"2025-11-25T07:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/198976\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:46:07","slug":"asylum-seekers-to-pay-up-to-40-of-income-to-fund-accommodation-under-new-plan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/198976\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum seekers to pay up to 40% of income to fund accommodation under new plan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

People seeking international protection<\/a> face paying up to 40 per cent of their weekly income to fund the cost of State accommodation, under proposals to be considered by the Government<\/a> on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The highest level under consideration will be \u20ac238 weekly for those who earn more than \u20ac600 per week, meaning someone earning slightly over this level will pay almost 40 per cent of their wages, with lower charges implemented depending on how much a person earns. <\/p>\n

The moves will be considered as the Coalition looks to tighten conditions afforded to those seeking protection here amid ongoing pressure on accommodation capacity \u2013 even though numbers have declined from last year. <\/p>\n

People earning more than \u20ac97 and up to \u20ac150 face a charge of \u20ac15 weekly, equivalent to up to between 15.5 and 10 per cent of their income. The percentage of income covering accommodation costs increases with wages \u2013 so, for example, someone earning anything more than \u20ac340 and up to \u20ac405 will be asked for \u20ac119 weekly, equivalent to 35-29 per cent of their income. <\/p>\n

The changes are being proposed by Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> and Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It comes as Mr O\u2019Callaghan said Ireland has to continue to try to get down the number of people applying for international protection here, with about 13,000 applications this year.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0State must keep trying to cut numbers applying for international protection, says MinisterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said if changes to UK asylum laws<\/a> lead to greater numbers coming here, it would have to be considered by him and the rest of the Government. <\/p>\n

He was speaking alongside European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner, who visited the Citywest accommodation centre<\/a> in Saggart, Co Dublin, for international protection applicants.<\/p>\n

Ministers will also be asked to consider more restrictive family reunification rules that are expected to bring down the number of people entering the State this way, and increasing the residency requirement for citizenship for someone with refugee status from three to five years.<\/p>\n

Government projections are that about 7,600 people will be eligible to pay a charge next year when it comes into effect. It is not expected to generate profits due to set-up and operational costs. <\/p>\n

That number, the Coalition hopes, will fall in the coming years if fewer people enter into the system. The Government believes figures are likely to fall in the coming years once the EU\u2019s new migration and asylum pact is implemented.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How the hardening of the UK\u2019s immigration laws will affect IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People seeking international protection face paying up to 40 per cent of their weekly income to fund the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,7335,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-198976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-irish-politics","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115609231896118520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}