An Oireachtas committee has heard that some staff at a direct provision centre in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry had not been vetted by An Garda Síochána.
A senior Department of Justice official said this was not acceptable and that employers had an obligation to vet staff.
Deputy Secretary-General Oonagh Buckley said that when the department was alerted last Wednesday, the concerns were passed on to the Garda National Vetting Bureau.
Ms Buckley said that all staff at the centre, where at least 25 people have tested positive for coronavirus, have now been vetted.
She was responding to questions from Sinn Féin TD for Kerry, Pa Daly.
He said rooms at the former Skellig Star Hotel did not have a kettle, many of them were shared rooms, and there was no social distancing.
Ms Buckley said that only a quarter of residents were in "own door accommodation" and people did have to share, including single residents.
The Department of Justice inspected the building in September.
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Another Kerry TD said it was "utterly shambolic and unacceptable" that an independent inspection of the building had not taken place.
Fianna Fáil's Norma Foley told the Covid-19 committee that no professional deep cleaning of the building had taken place from 18 March, despite the virus outbreak.
Deputy Foley asked who in the Department of Justice and the Health Service Executive had oversight of the Cahersiveen facility.
She asked if the HSE had failed to inform the department of a positive case of Covid-19 at a Dublin hotel accommodation base of a large group of asylum seekers and why the HSE did not authorise testing of the group before it was sent to Kerry in March.
Ms Foley asked who made the decision to overrule the concerns of HSE Cork/Kerry regarding the movement of a large group of people during a pandemic to a place that the local HSE officials deemed to be inappropriate.
In response, Ms Buckley said the department had to follow HSE advice on testing.
She said there are normally three unannounced inspections of every centre each year but this has been difficult to achieve given the number of centres and the context of the pandemic.
Ms Buckley said the Cahersiveen centre was opened much faster than normal and the department did not have the time to do what would normally be done.
She said that officials had been in daily contact with the manager and are satisfied that the centre is now being run well and has good facilities.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked if it was true that a large group from a hostel in north Dublin was moved into the Travelodge Hotel in Swords soon after the group of residents was moved to Cahersiveen.
Deputy Murphy also asked if the Department of Justice was aware that, within days of the exchange happening, a number of hotel staff had a positive Covid-19 diagnosis.
Ms Buckley said the first the department heard about positive cases at the Travelodge in Swords was when it received a letter from Deputy Murphy's office.
She said officials contacted the hotel management to find out what was going on.
Ms Buckley also said that once the Swords hotel was no longer accommodating other residents it was used to house new arrivals.
However, she said the hotel had started to take in paying customers again and the department had stopped using it, moving residents to other facilities in Dublin.
Additional reporting Aisling Kenny
