The Government is understood to be aiming to purchase the Citywest Hotel in west Dublin in order to significantly expand accommodation for asylum seekers on the site.
The State has been using a portion of the existing site for international protection applicants, but the expansion could see 1,000 applicants housed there.
The purchase could cost around €100m and the Cabinet will consider the proposal shortly, possibly as soon as Tuesday.
Published figures show that the owners of Citywest, the country’s largest hotel, received €51m from the State for the first nine months of last year for making the facility available.
The Government has pledged to move away from private sector accommodation for asylum seekers and to replace it with its own facilities on State land.
A spokesperson for Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan declined to comment.
Yesterday, it emerged that the Department of Justice had reversed a plan to house asylum seekers at the site of a former paint factory in Coolock in Dublin.
The proposal had seen prolonged local opposition.
The Department said that planning delays were one of the reasons for the decision along with value for money, required works and residents’ welfare.
