There are 67 centres across 25 counties currently accommodating 6,500 asylum seekers on "direct provision". Since April 2000, as part of this system, all asylum seekers are dispersed to centres outside Dublin about two weeks after they arrive.
They are provided with bed and board and a "payment to cover personal requisites" of €19.10 a week per adult, and €9.60 per child.
They are not permitted either to work or to take up full-time education, though children aged under 18 are entitled to education. In the five years since direct provision was introduced, some 37,000 people have been through it.