I move the following Further Revised Estimate: Vote 24 - Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (Third Further Revised Estimate) That a sum not exceeding €2,724,546,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2025, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Probation Service staff and of certain other services including payments under cash limited schemes administered by that Office, and payment of certain grants. I have formally moved the motion, but I just want to recite exactly what is involved. A sum not exceeding €2,841,123 gross will be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31 December 2025 for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and of certain other services including payments administered by that Office, and payment of certain grants. The Estimate also makes provision for additional capital funding in respect of the international protection accommodation services, IPAS, and reflects the use of additional appropriations-in-aid to make payments under the criminal legal aid scheme and to victims of crime who have received awards from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal. This technical adjustment increases the gross ceiling by €10 million but does not impact the net level. As Deputies will be aware, the programme for Government contains a commitment regarding the transfer of certain functions between Departments. On 1 August, following approval by the Government, responsibility for the Irish Film Classification Office, IFCO, was transferred to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and responsibility for the Property Services Regulatory Authority and the Property Services Appeals Board was transferred to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Housing. This is not quite the final element, but it is nearly the final element, of the transfer of function in the programme for Government for my Department. There will be one other minor transfer that will be effected pursuant to the criminal law and civil law (miscellaneous provisions) Bill 2025, which will hopefully be introduced this term. The Bills is necessary because, as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be aware, under the Mulcreevy principle, I cannot use secondary legislation to amend primary legislation. Primary legislation will therefore be necessary for the final transfer functions. Deputies will recall that the House has previously approved Further Revised Estimates to take account of these transfers. The most recent of these was in June relating to the transfer of the National Cyber Security Centre and responsibility for cybersecurity policy, transferring from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to my Department. Prior to that, a Further Revised Estimate introduced on 1 May 2025 involved in the region of 330 staff and 150 contractors, and a budget allocation of over €2 billion, moving from the Department of children's Vote. The original Revised Estimate for my Department was approved on 1 April in advance of the commencement of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, and the establishment of two new Votes for the Policing and Community Safety Authority and Fiosrú under the justice Vote group. Therefore, I am seeking the approval of the House for this Further Revised Estimate for the justice Vote for 2025. With regard to the transfer of functions, the allocation for IFCO, previously the Film Censor’s Office, is transferring to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. The gross allocation is €832,000 and appropriations-in-aid are €840,000. I believe the House will agree that the activities of that office align well with the Department of culture. The allocation for the Property Services Regulatory Authority and the Property Services Appeals Board is transferring to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The gross allocation is €4.25 million with appropriations-in-aid resulting from fee income for licensing active of €2.4 million. Again, these functions are aligned with the overall role and function of the Department of housing. I will now proceed to deal with the capital funding for the purchase of the Citywest accommodation. This Estimate also makes substantial provision for additional capital funding in respect of international protection accommodation. I am pleased that €113.25 million is being provided in line with the decision of Government to purchase Citywest, a large former hotel complex and site in the outer Dublin region. This represents the first significant move in support of the Government’s policy to reduce reliance on the private sector and increase the capacity of State-owned sites. The full purchase price, including VAT, was €148.25 million and represents good value for the State. A sum of €113.25 million is the net funding requirement for the Vote, taking into account the limited existing capital allocation. The purchase of the property provided a unique opportunity to deliver a high-capacity State-owned accommodation centre in a strategic location within an accelerated timeline. The purchase will significantly reduce the current expenditure on State accommodation at this site and will mean that we will save more than €1 billion over a 25-year period. It will increase the value for public moneys now and for the future. The payback period on the purchase price is approximately four years due to the reduced running costs of a State-owned facility. The facility will also act as a cornerstone to the State's implementation of the migration pact in 2026, acting as a screening centre and border procedure location, as required under the new EU pact. I will now turn to the criminal legal aid scheme and criminal injuries compensation scheme, in respect of which there are further allocations. I am taking this opportunity to provide additional funding for the criminal legal aid scheme of €8 million, and €2 million for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal. This is being funded from appropriations-in-aid, which are increasing by €10 million arising from immigration registration fees. From an accounting perspective, this increases the gross ceiling by €10 million but does not impact the net level. As a result of the motion before us and as a consequence of the changes outlined, Vote 24 will have a budget allocation for 2025 of €2,724,546,000. I commend the motion to the House and ask it to approve the necessary financial arrangements that I have outlined.

Sentiment score: 0.19

I thank the three Deputies for their useful contributions. Obviously, they were all present for the justice committee meeting yesterday where we covered much of the ground in respect of international protection accommodation services. Deputy Carthy started with reference to the issue of IPAS. All of us here - Deputies Gannon, Kelly and Carthy and myself - agree that far too much money is being spent on accommodation for international protection applicants. My policy objective is to try to drive down the amount of money we are spending on it. It is not sustainable in the long run when we consider that, this year, we are going to spend €1.2 billion on IPAS. I would love to have that money available to deal with other issues that have been identified by Deputy Carthy, such as criminal legal aid, civil legal aid and the criminal injuries compensation tribunal, CICT. In terms of the objective and as I said yesterday, the real driver of the cost of IPAS is the number of people within the system and the length of time they stay therein. I gave the statistics yesterday as to the number of people claiming asylum in Ireland, both prior to and during Covid-19. In the three years since then, from 2022 to 2024, we saw 45,000 people arrive and claim asylum. Our accommodation provision in IPAS went from 7,000 to 33,000 people who we are accommodating at present. I note what Deputy Carthy said about people making a lot of money out of this. That is the case, but regrettably, because we do not have State-owned accommodation, we have to pay people to provide this accommodation. My objective is to try to ensure that we reduce the amount of money we are spending on it. That is why we proceeded with the purchase of Citywest. To answer Deputy Kelly's question directly, the State intends to make other purchases similar to the purchase of Citywest. I am conscious that we probably will not get a facility of equal size to Citywest. However, it is necessary that we purchase more sites so that I can achieve the policy objective, which is that, by 2028, we will have 14,000 State-owned accommodation units for those seeking asylum. I want to get there because, as I said yesterday, the cost of accommodating an asylum applicant in private accommodation at present is €30,000 per year. The cost of accommodating him or her in State-owned accommodation is €12,000 per year. There is a clear saving in providing State accommodation as opposed to providing accommodation in the private sector. I note what Deputy Carthy said about criminal legal aid and civil legal aid. I am in negotiations with the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation with respect to trying to get further increases in the criminal legal aid sphere. There has been a well-motivated campaign on this issue, seeking full restoration of criminal legal aid fees. I am also conscious, however, of the limitations of the civil legal aid system that operates. I got the report and the minority report from Mr. Justice Frank Clarke and his committee. I cannot give any commitments in respect of it. Regarding the criminal injuries compensation tribunal, Deputy Carthy correctly pointed out the significance of the Blanco judgment. The reason that man got such a small award of €645 from the CICT is that the compensation tribunal does not compensate people for pain and suffering. All one will get from the CICT is compensation for material financial loss. It is very limited in what it provides for. One of the cases being considered at present is whether there is an obligation on the State to provide compensation for pain and suffering. It potentially could increase the liability of the State hugely. Obviously, that has to be taken into account. I listened carefully to Deputy Gannon, who spoke about youth diversion. We have excellent youth diversion programmes in this country. Later on this year or early next year, I hope to be able to say that we have rolled out youth diversion programmes in every part of the country. They do outstanding work. They do not get enough credit. It is the same case with the Probation Service. The Probation Service is an entity within my Department that does superb work. I think I have answered Deputy Kelly's question about the purchase of other accommodation. He also raised the issue of the rate card. I am not going to publish the rate card because I think it would be to the financial disadvantage of the State.

Sentiment score: 0.04

I know the Deputy did not ask that. What the Deputy wanted to know was the basis upon which we try to categorise a price. Location is one consideration. The size of the entity and the services in the surrounding area are others. There is greater consistency coming in.

Sentiment score: 0.07