International Protection Accommodation Service
The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS), formerly Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), was established by the Irish government on 2 April 2001. Resulting from the merger of the Directorate for Asylum Support Services and the Refugee Agency (which was part of the Department of Foreign Affairs), it is part of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. It was formerly part of the Department of Justice
The IPAS is responsible for coordinating the provision of services to both asylum seekers and refugees, coordinating the implementation of integration policy for all refugees and persons granted leave to remain in the Republic of Ireland and responding to crisis situations which may result in large numbers of refugees arriving in the country.
After a government decision of 2 March 2004, RIA was assigned responsibility for supporting the repatriation, on an ongoing basis for the Department of Social Protection, of nationals of the ten new EU member states (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) who might fail the Habitual Residency Condition attaching to Social Assistance Payments.
Direct Provision
One of the tasks of the RIA under the Government's policy of direct provision is to provide residential accommodation and ancillary services to asylum seekers while they await the outcome of their applications for asylum in the country. To meet this requirement, the Accommodation Procurement Unit of the agency has contracted various private companies to provide these services at several accommodation centres on the country, the largest being at Mosney. The system has been criticised by human rights organisations as illegal, inhuman and degrading.
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