<p>
	More than 1,000 in system are &lsquo;effectively unable to participate&rsquo; in festive season</p>
<p>
	Over 1,000 asylum seekers will get their Christmas &ldquo;bonus&rdquo; this week &ndash; of &euro;16.23 for adults and &euro;13.26 for their children.</p>
<p>
	These asylum seekers are among 1.2 million welfare recipients who will get the &ldquo;bonus&rdquo;, worth 85 per cent of their weekly allowance, along with their regular payment, between now and Friday.</p>
<p>
	According to figures from the Department of Social Protection, some 1,170 recipients of the direct provision allowance &ndash; of &euro;19.10 per week for adults and &euro;15.60 for children, will be entitled to the &ldquo;bonus&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	As with several other schemes &ndash; including jobseeker&rsquo;s allowance and the back to education allowance &ndash; recipients of the DP allowance must have been eligible for the payment for 15 months to qualify for the bonus.</p>
<p>
	The weekly allowance for asylum seekers and their children, and the &ldquo;bonus&rdquo;, are so low that families in direct provision are &ldquo;effectively unable to participate in Christmas&rdquo; according to Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children&rsquo;s Rights Alliance</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;We know children in direct provision try to hide the fact that they live there because they are so ashamed of the poverty. Christmas makes the reality of that poverty even more stark for them.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;This would be the ideal time for the Government to follow through on recommendations made in their own working group report, that the allowance for children of asylum seekers be increased to &euro;29.80 per week.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Working group report</p>
<p>
	The report, from the working group chaired by former justice Dr Bryan McMahon, recommended the weekly allowance for children be increased by &euro;20.20 from &euro;9.60 for children, to the rate paid in respect of child dependents of other welfare recipients. The allowance for children was increased, but by &euro;6 only.</p>
<p>
	The report also recommended the allowance for adults be increased to &euro;38.74. It remains &euro;19.10.</p>
<p>
	Fr Peter McVerry, founder of the Peter McVerry Trust, said the count identifies &ldquo;only about half the real number of people sleeping rough each night&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t include the 70 people who are sleeping on mats each night in the Merchants Quay cafe, who are unable to get an emergency bed. It doesn&rsquo;t include the people sleeping in tents in the Phoenix Park, or the people sleeping in derelict buildings, or on benches in parks.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	In addition to those adults sleeping rough and the 70 in Merchants Quay, the most recent data for October show during the week of October 24th-30th there were 2,065 children, 1,421 parents and 1,660 adults without child dependents in emergency accommodation in Dublin, giving a total official homeless population of more than 5,350.</p>
<p>
	Three new emergency hostels are due to open on Friday, December 9th, in Dublin 7 and Dublin 8, providing an additional 220 beds for homeless adults &ndash; an average of 73 beds in each.</p>
<p>
	Though these beds are welcome, a spokesman for the Peter McVerry Trust said it would be preferable if smaller hostels were opened more regularly.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;There is an argument that the [homelessness] sector should open a smaller, new hostel every month to cope with the net increase, instead of these big hostels every winter. We are meant to be moving away from big institutional settings, but it seems we&rsquo;re going back to that.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Seven adults without children were becoming homeless each week in Dublin, he said, and the trend should be more closely monitored.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Really there should be a rough-sleeper count every month, not just twice a year, to stay on top of what&rsquo;s happening on the ground.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The DRHE said the street count was necessary to confirm &ldquo;a minimum number of people sleeping rough on the night in question in the Dublin region.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;[It] assists us in measuring the effectiveness of the regional strategy, in addition to planning for services.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by the Irish Times on the 28th November 2016)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/christmas-bonus-for-asylum-seekers-in-direct-provision-is-16-1.2884410">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/christmas-bonus-for-asylum-seekers-in-direct-provision-is-16-1.2884410</a></p>
