So I've recently been helping a Palestinian man, I met him while staying in a hostel in Dublin for a work event, we became great friends. He's quite badly injured and his mobility affected. He is an asylum seeker, and to the best of my knowledge is on some scheme akin to direct provision.

I want to offer him our spare room for a few months/weeks while he awaits his asylum approval and maybe after so he doesn't have to keep climbing bunk beds, paying the fluctuating price for his bed and sharing with 5-10 people each night. I tried to research what was offered to people in this situation but nothing really aligned with what he's telling me but I also met many others who gave me the same story in that hostel. So I think he's telling the truth

I explained his situation to IPAS in an E-mail. I asked if they could provide me with information on this

To me it's a win win scenario, living with a sound guy, helping somebody out, and guaranteed help with the rent, landlord is a family friend, lives here and approves so no issues there, he visited last week and they got on well.

So I literally said to IPAS "I know someone who is in the following scenario, [Description] I was wondering if you could provide me with more information as to exactly what this would be called, so that I can research further, and maybe you could also outline their rights and entitlements."

They sent me a cut and paste, possibly automated reply, asking for my personal details, I am not the concerned party and it was asking for details/ID Numbers I don't even have as a citizen, so I just replied to the email and explained the above, knowing this would probably be forwarded to a human then and it was.

They replied to me, basically saying that they couldn't respond to any query without a written authority from my "client" I never referred to him as my client, I do work in the legal sector actually but I am not a solicitor and don't have "clients" this guy is just my friend.

I don't think this person even read my email and I think they just don't want to answer the question because they don't know the answer. They were citing "in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation 2018" which in my understanding GDPR was written in 2016, and in Ireland we have the Data Protection Act 2018 to make this legally binding within the state.

Aside from that, this is a pretty general query, I didn't provide personal details, I'm not asking for them, for all they know this is a completely hypothetical question. The rights and entitlements of asylum seekers should be public information anyway.

The citizens info website says persons under direct provision are provided with accommodation, food and a daily expense allowance. They can forfeit the accommodation but by doing so forfeit all of the other allowances.

As I understand it, the state is not in a position to accommodate or feed him, so they increased his DEA and reimburse him for his accommodation, but he is still under direct provision. So I want to know if I can even offer him the room.

Maybe you can answer my initial question, and shed some light on whether their "GDPR" concern is legitimate.