This is a list of all purchase orders of more than €20,000 from the Department of Justice in 2019.
A huge portion of the bill related to the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers in the direct provision system.
The other expenditure – on IT, media services, transport etc – is all general spending by the department last year.
While some of it may relate to direct provision, most of it will relate to the day-to-day business of the Department of Justice.
These lists of purchase orders worth more than €20,000 are supposed to be published by all public bodies as a matter of course.
The Department of Justice had ceased this practice and the record was obtained under FOI by Right to Know.
The department has now committed to publishing it to their website and hopefully will resume routine publication of this important information.