{"id":584740,"date":"2026-07-14T07:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/584740\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T07:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:17:11","slug":"homelessness-risk-for-hundreds-of-refugee-families-sparks-exchange-between-ministers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/584740\/","title":{"rendered":"Homelessness \u2018risk\u2019 for hundreds of refugee families sparks exchange between Ministers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discussions took place in Government<\/a> around measures that could be taken to reduce the \u201chigh risk\u201d of hundreds of refugee families becoming homeless<\/a> when they were transferred out of asylum seeker accommodation at the start of July.<\/p>\n

Minister for Housing James Browne<\/a> raised the concerns directly with Cabinet colleague and Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>, correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act shows.<\/p>\n

Asylum seekers are entitled to accommodation for the duration of their application, and this is provided by the International Protection Accommodation Service (Ipas<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, 475 families who had been granted international protection but remained in accommodation centres for more than a year were told<\/a> Ipas accommodation would be \u201cno longer available to them\u201d from the start of this month, the Department of Justice<\/a> has confirmed.<\/p>\n

Browne wrote directly to O\u2019Callaghan in March urging him to consider measures to protect these refugees from becoming homeless, including not transferring them to emergency Ipas accommodation too far from their current jobs.<\/p>\n

He said the Department of Housing<\/a> had identified people leaving direct provision with refugee status as a cohort at \u201chigh risk of homelessness\u201d, and asked O\u2019Callaghan to consider three measures to \u201cmitigate the risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0School holidays \u2018highly challenging\u2019 for thousands of homeless children as rates rise againOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

These included sharing information with his department about which families would be transferred; giving them \u201csufficient time\u201d to find rental<\/a> accommodation; and transferring people to accommodation close to schools or places of work.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan responded and said the data showed the number of people who become homeless within six months of leaving Ipas remains \u201crelatively small\u201d, with the issue \u201cheavily concentrated in the Dublin<\/a> region\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said this showed people were moving to Dublin because of a \u201cdesire to live in this region, rather than the result of the Ipas transfer policy itself\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Ipas was operating under \u201csignificant pressure, particularly in relation to accommodation for single adult males\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said Ipas had to prioritise accommodation for those still seeking international protection, and said it was \u201cnot sustainable\u201d to continue accommodating people who have already been granted refugee status.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, internal correspondence in the Department of Justice shows concerns were raised about \u201cnarratives\u201d being created about the link between migration and homelessness, weeks after the Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste made such comments.<\/p>\n

In emails to the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing on January 21st, the head of operations at Ipas said \u201crecent reporting and discussion\u201d meant now was a \u201cgood opportunity\u201d to get clarity on how many people in emergency homeless accommodation have previously lived in Ipas centres.<\/p>\n

Ipas wanted every local authority to share details of the names and dates of birth of everyone who had presented as homeless in 2025 after coming from international protection, so that Ipas could \u201cvalidate\u201d the data and identify trends.<\/p>\n

The email argued the majority who left Ipas had \u201csuccessfully\u201d found housing without using emergency accommodation, and Ipas wanted to know what made the cohort who did not different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work would provide further clarity and help mitigate against the narratives being created that work against our overall objective to provide clear information and informed decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The D\u00e1il<\/a> recently passed a Government Bill that will impose stricter rules on access to social housing<\/a> and emergency accommodation for those without residency rights in the State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discussions took place in Government around measures that could be taken to reduce the \u201chigh risk\u201d of hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,4767,13169,8753,93151,52,18,3428,24081,8752,19,56,56707,17,4770,26735,4097,19142],"class_list":["post-584740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dail-eireann","tag-department-of-justice","tag-department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage","tag-direct-provision","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-government","tag-homeless-crisis","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas","tag-ireland","tag-james-browne","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-renting","tag-social-housing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116917111807618588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584740","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=584740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}