The Government has appointed forensic accountants amid concerns about “significant fraud” by some accommodation providers housing refugees and asylum seekers.
The Irish Times has learned that Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman told a key Cabinet subcommittee last week that his department is concerned about “instances of significant fraud”, including cases hotels are believed to have claimed payments for people who have moved out of their accommodation.
The State has been winding up contracts with a range of accommodation providers this year on foot of a decline in the number of Ukrainians seeking protection here, as well as many leaving hotels and guest houses. It is understood that approximately 75 contracts have already been terminated for compliance reasons.
“Compliance issues identified include, but are not limited to, the health, safety and wellbeing of those in accommodation; overcharging by providers for accommodation; and unregulated secondary properties,” a spokesman for Mr O’Gorman said.
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“The department has contracted a forensic accountancy company to examine suspected cases of overcharging, and where identified the money owed will be pursued.” It is understood that any payments due will be pursued as a civil matter.
Elsewhere, Ministers have been briefed on plans to ramp up the number of gardaí stationed in high-risk airports overseas in an effort to further drive down the number of people arriving with bogus documents or destroying their passports in transit.
A briefing note circulated to Ministers in advance of a meeting of a Cabinet subcommittee dealing with immigration outlined that one airport liaison officer has been deployed in a high-risk airport since March of last year.
Ministers were told the Department of Justice believes this has “resulted in a significant decreased in non-nationals who do not meet travel requirements from entering the State from the designated airport”.
As a result plans are now under way to enhance the Garda National Immigration Bureau’s overseas network “into a number of European airport hubs in 2024”.
The same meeting also saw an intervention from Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke, who appealed for more joined up thinking in the Government’s approach to a site in his Westmeath constituency.
Refugees and asylum seekers are currently housed in tents and modular homes on the site of the former Columb Barracks in Athlone – with a plan to build 45 more modular homes for this year. However, Mr Burke is understood to have told Ministers that he had just attended a meeting discussing the development of the site as social and affordable housing by the Land Development Agency, arguing that the two decisions were incompatible with each other. He said Government risked compromising itself with a haphazard approach to projects.
Ministers were told that applications to the International Protection Office were 120 per cent higher in the second quarter of the year than the same period in 2023. They were told 957 deportation orders were signed until the end of June, a 76 per cent increase on the same period last year, with 322 individuals removed from the State this year – 250 of whom were voluntarily returned.
According to statistics given to Ministers, the number of undocumented arrivals at Dublin Airport in 2024 is down by 14 per cent compared to the first five months of 2023 and 42 per cent on 2022.
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