Asylum-seekers will be effectively tied into living in their State-provided accommodation under radical new proposals being drafted by the authorities.
In a planned further tightening-up of the asylum system, refugee applicants who are allocated housing in "direct provision" centres would forfeit their right to welfare payments if they subsequently left this accommodation to live in the community.
The proposed measures are aimed at ensuring that asylum-seekers remain in State-provided full-board accommodation, where they receive €19.10 per adult per week, as well as having food and laundry services provided.
Currently, those who leave their allocated accommodation and move into the private rental market can claim mainstream social welfare payments such as social welfare allowance or rent supplement.
The Attorney General's Office has been asked to provide legal advice on the proposals, which the Government would like to introduce in social welfare legislation due before the Dáil next February.
The planned move is part of a package of new asylum restrictions put forward by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell. The proposals would also see the Department of Justice take over from the Department of Social and Family Affairs in administering welfare payments to some 5,000 asylum-seekers currently living in State-provided accommodation throughout the Republic.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, said that under current law asylum-seekers who have left direct provision have been found to be entitled to the same welfare schemes as Irish citizens. Those who move into the private rental market can claim payments such as rent supplement, lone parents benefit and supplementary welfare allowance.
Officials say that about half of asylum applicants who are designated accommodation in direct provision centres either do not take it up or do not remain in it. People with medical needs and those for whom other exceptional circumstances apply are currently exempted from living in direct provision.
Ms Coughlan's Department expects to spend €111 million on non-nationals this year, including asylum-seekers, refugees and other EU and non-EU immigrants.
"What the Minister [for Justice] feels is that direct provision is adequate and therefore there should be no necessity to go outside of direct provision unless you are given permission to stay [as a refugee]," Ms Coughlan told The Irish Times.
The Minister said that she has proposed in the Social Welfare Bill, due to come before the Oireachtas to transfer to the Minister for Justice the portion of her funding for direct provision payments to be administered by his Department.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said that social welfare and other benefits available to those who have entered the State "irregularly" were under "close examination to ensure that Ireland does not find itself unwittingly subsidising international criminals engaged in this trade by allowing their victims to pledge future social assistance payments in exchange for their illegal passage to the State".