Social welfare payments to asylum-seekers are expected to amount to £25 million this year, according to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, This is only half of 1 per cent of the total social welfare budget, a Department official said.
Mr Brian O Raghaillaigh, principal officer at the Department, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social, Community and Family Affairs yesterday that asylum-seekers received Supplementary Welfare Allowance, the lowest social welfare payment, on the same means-tested basis as other applicants.
Because they were not allowed to work, they could not sign on. Therefore they were not on the live register and did not receive unemployment payments. The basic SWA payment was £68.40 for an adult, £41.20 for an adult dependant and £13.20 for a child. Two-thirds of asylum-seekers are single people, mostly males.
Asylum-seekers could also apply for a rent supplement of up to £44 a week for a single person, and up to £121 a week for a family with two children. Those failing to find rented accommodation live in hostels and B & Bs paid for by the Government. These cost up to £15 a night for hostel accommodation, and up to £20 a night for bed and breakfast. Two-thirds of asylum-seekers live in rented accommodation, with the remainder split between hostels and B & Bs.
Mr O Raghaillaigh told the committee that the vast majority of asylum-seekers, almost 90 per cent, are in the Eastern Health Board area. Only two are receiving social welfare payments in the North-Western Health Board area, and none in the midland area.
Mr Martin Gallagher of the EHB said that within that area the majority of asylum-seekers lived in Dublin. There were 1,100 in the Thomas Street/James's Street area, where a large number of the hostels and B & Bs were concentrated. The welfare payments are made through a special unit in St James's Hospital.
Other areas where a large number are concentrated included Community Care Area Five, from Summerhill to Clontarf, with the majority closer to the city-centre. Some 580 asylum-seekers, some with their families, lived there.
Other areas with high concentrations included the areas from Charles Street to Finglas, and from South Earl Street to Terenure. There were only 21 in the area around Blackrock, and 16 in the area from Coolock to Malahide. Co Kildare had 28 and Co Wicklow 10.
Asked if it would be possible to disperse them in order to avoid the build-up of resentment from people who were themselves deprived, Mr Gallagher said they had to be near the place which was paying them. No one was assigning them to any area; they chose where they lived.
Mr Bernard McDonagh, second secretary of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, said that up to August 31st 3,471 applications for asylum had been lodged. There were 3,883 in 1997.
This compared with a total non-national population (not including EU citizens) of 50,000. The number of visas issued annually, for people studying, working or visiting, was 37,000 and rising.
Mr McDonagh was pressed by members of the committee on why asylum-seekers were not permitted to work. He said they only had temporary permission to remain in the State pending a decision on their applications. The intention was to reduce the time spent deciding on applications to about six months. Those granted refugee status would then be allowed to work.
"Asylum-seekers are people seeking refugee status as an escape from persecution. Giving them early access to employment is treating them as economic migrants, will act as a `pull factor' and will encourage further abuses of the asylum process," he said.