Over 1,600 migrants who claimed asylum in Ireland have gone without an offer of State accommodation since May alone, according to Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan.
In a Parliamentary Question submitted to the Justice Minister, O’Callaghan confirmed that a total of 1,680 single male applicants were not offered accommodation on arrival in Ireland between May and September of 2025.
The numbers break down as follows:
May – 296
June – 309
July – 351
August – 317
September – 407
Explaining the background to the current situation, the Fianna Fáil Minister explained that “extensive challenges were posed to the State in sourcing international protection accommodation” during what he called an “unprecedented surge” in applications from 2022 to 2024.
“During this period, over 45,000 additional international protection applicants arrived in Ireland,” he said.
“Prior to this, a typical 3-year period would have seen close to 8,000 or 9,000 arrivals.”
He explained that during the “surge period”, the State was “obliged to urgently source over 26,000 beds for international protection applicants, and in parallel, up to 60,000 beds for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.”
“Shortages of suitable accommodation meant that from December 2023 on, IPAS has been unable to offer accommodation to all single male applicants on arrival,” he continued.
“After a vulnerability triage on application, people who are not offered accommodation are given a weekly allowance of €113.80 per week, an increase of €75 more than the standard weekly allowance for asylum-seekers.”
He also explained that not all males who fail to receive State accommodation are necessarily sleeping rough.
“While not all unaccommodated applicants are rough-sleeping, IPAS can also make offers of accommodation to any applicant who is, identified through outreach that is organised 7 days a week,” he said.
“IPAS also has arrangements in place with a range of NGO partners to provide drop-in day services for unaccommodated people. This means people can access facilities including hot showers, meals and laundry services.”
The Minister also noted that many of the applications “have been made a retrospective offer of accommodation, after their initial arrival.”
“The reduced rate of new applications this year has meant that IPAS bas been able to review the cases of people who are awaiting an offer of accommodation and make offers to those who have been waiting longest,” he said.
“As part of the review process, we are also identifying people who no longer require accommodation. They will be removed from the list of people waiting for an offer, speeding up the process for people on the list who still need accommodation.
“This review has reduced the number of unaccommodated people from over 3,500 in March 2025, to 613. As my officials work through these cases on a daily basis and validate data for publication, I expect this number to reduce further for September.”
He added: “This means that eligible people who applied for international protection during 2023 and 2024 and the first 6 months of 2025 have received an offer of accommodation…Depending on availability of spaces and numbers of new applicants, we will continue to make offers of accommodation to more people over the coming weeks and months.
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