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The Abbeyfield Hotel in Ballaghaderreen County Roscommon is hosting 82 Syrian refugees. Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Private firms housing refugees and asylum seekers were paid €60 million last year

The rise in spend by the RIA came against the background of the numbers accommodated by the agency last year decreasing from 4,696 to 4,425 at year end.

PRIVATE FIRMS ACCOMMODATING asylum seekers and refugees last year shared in a €60.3 million government pay pot.

That is according to the 2016 annual report by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) which shows that the RIA’s total spend last year amounted to €64.13 million – a rise of 12% on the €57 million spend in 2015.

The RIA is the state agency charged with accommodating asylum seekers and a breakdown of the 2016 spend shows that €51.7 million was paid out to to firms to fund the operation of 28 commercially owned centres.

A further €7.64 million paid out to firms to operate seven centres owned by the State while another €976,000 was paid to operate two self catering non-direct provision commercially owned centres.

The report confirms that the RIA spent another €11,000 on ‘nappies and miscellaneous costs’ and another €3.5m on utilities for the network of direct provision centres.

The €51.7 million spend on the 28 commercially owned centres includes €3.2 million for the Hazel and Clonea Strand hotels and the persons accommodated there have entered the State under the Resettlement Programme and a separate Relocation Programme.

The rise in spend by the RIA came against the background of the numbers accommodated by the agency last year decreasing from 4,696 to 4,425 at year end.

However, in the report Principal Officer with the RIA, Eugene Banks said that this masks a significant churn in the number with approximately 1,700 persons leaving and slightly fewer entering State provided accommodation.

The largest proportion of those seeking asylum here last year were those from Pakistan at 14.6% or 657 with the other largest groups coming from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Albania and DR Congo.

The report also reveals that 51 suspected victims of human trafficking were reported to Gardaí last year and eight of those were asylum seekers.

Separate figures published by the Dept of Justice show that the eight largest contractors operating the centres shared €43.5 million in payments last year.

Two of the private contractors, Mosney and East Coast Catering each received fees in excess of €7 million last year while another, Fazyard Ltd along with an connected entity, Old George Ltd received payments totalling €6m.

Three others received over €5 million – US giant Aramark, Co Mayo based Bridgestock and the Barrow Group. Millstreet Equestrian Services received €4.1m while Onsite Field Management (OFM) received €2 million.

Last year, the RIA accommodated 1,749 new asylum applicants representing an decrease of 38% on the new numbers it accommodated in 2015. The number of children accommodated at the end of last year totalled 1,121.

Read: Homeless families asked to pay €37 a week to live in ‘hubs’

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    Mute Thors Big Hammer
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    Apr 20th 2014, 8:24 AM

    No surprise there. The government record on been pro business is an abysmal failure .

    48
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    Mute Joseph O'Regan
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    Apr 20th 2014, 11:38 AM

    They are pro Multi nationals, pro slave wage and bank. They are doing everything to destroy the middle class for their masters.

    11
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    Mute Joseph O'Regan
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    Apr 20th 2014, 10:25 AM

    Another lets pretend we give a sh@t scheme, reality = more jobs for the boys.

    22
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    Mute Declan Carr
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    Apr 20th 2014, 9:46 AM

    Government scheme designed to put money in their pockets and as little as possible into the system.

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    Mute Rory J Leonard
    Favourite Rory J Leonard
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    Apr 20th 2014, 9:01 AM

    EII Scheme is well explained on Revenue Commissioners website.

    http://www.revenue.ie

    under

    Businesses and Self Assessment

    then

    Supporting Job Creation and other Enterprise Supports

    Plenty of risk capital out there to gamble on horses, football, and increasingly, in Dublin property, but little for new businesses and SME employment creation.

    ISME and SFA need to stop talking about it and get stuck into finding a solution.

    13
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    Mute Ger Ryan
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    Apr 20th 2014, 10:50 AM

    Poorly marketted. Rubbish. As well as making the scheme available to sme’s they have to market it as well. What are sme’s paying their subs to isme for??? Gov made scheme available at request of s.m.es. absolute hogwash from mr fielding

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    Mute The Truth Hurts
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    Apr 20th 2014, 11:36 AM

    A lot of his musings are also hogwash.

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