On 21 October, 2008 the Government agreed to a new round of Value For Money (VFM) reviews for the period 2009 - 2011. One of the expenditure programmes on the Vote of the Office of the Minister for Justice and Law Reform to be the subject of such a review was the spending by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) - a functional unit of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of the Department of Justice and Law Reform - on the provision of full board ("Direct Provision") accommodation services for asylum seekers

As with all such VFM reviews, the review group had a steering committee comprising officials from the Department of Justice and Law Reform, the Department of Finance and an independent Chairperson.

The Review had a number of purposes. It had to examine (with particular concentration on 2005 to 2008) the aims and objectives of the Programme and determine if those aims and objectives remain relevant and warrant the continued allocation of public funds; to determine whether the Programme is providing value for money; to make recommendations as to how the value for money of the Programme can be improved; to examine alternatives to the Programme and to determine whether those alternatives would provide better value for money.

The extent of the Programme under review is reflected in the fact that at the time of publication (30 July, 2010), RIA had contracted to it 47 accommodation centres around the country accommodating 6,350 asylum seekers and the projected total spend in 2010 for services provided by RIA is approximately €78 million.

Value for Money Report & Policy Review - Asylum Seeker Accommodation Programme (Final Report May 2010)

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