Report Criticises Children Living In Direct Provision B&Bs & Hotels
The use of hotels and B&Bs to accommodate people in Direct Provision, and a lack of vulnerability assessments, are putting children at risk according to a new report.
The Ombudsman for Children's Office has today published a report on the safety and welfare of children in Direct Provision.
The report states hotels and B&Bs are not suitable places for children to grow up.
There are currently 5,276 children living in Direct Provision.
The study also states there are next to no vulnerability checks for children living in Direct Provision, and there needs to be improvement in inspections and protections.
Dr. Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children says the money spent on hotels and B&Bs to accommodate asylum seekers could be better spent:
"We're spending at least €40m a month on private enterprises that have no standards [or] no guarantee of how they're going to work.
"And we can look at that and say, 'listen, in the next 12 months we're going to divert some of that towards own accommodation' that the State can run and control."
