Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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290. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there are further plans to audit emergency accommodation beds to identify vacancy after the audit carried out in mid-March of this year. [26025/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Currently, there are over 31,000 people accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) system as a whole (of whom 7,680 are children) compared with approximately 8,700 people at the end of February 2022.

The Department engages intensively and proactively on a continuing basis with providers of contracted accommodation to identify any available bed spaces at these locations. A programme of in person inspections of centres is also carried out which includes checks to ensure bed usage is maximised.

These processes are in place to ensure every available bed within the IPAS portfolio is available to accommodate arriving international protection applicants.