Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

At the heart of this problem is that we have a situation whereby there is no consideration of, or planning around, the Government's policy to find accommodation. If we are real, the Government's policy to find accommodation is lastminute.com. It is a Yellow Pack situation to find anybody who will give accommodation. What that means is there is no planning around the resources that are necessary, including doctors, dentists, schools, housing and transport. It was incredible that the Minister talked on the radio last Sunday about the €50 million of community dividends provided by the Government. It was announced in 2022, but the reply to a parliamentary question from the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, told us that only €2.9 million of that has been spent in a year. In June 2022, the Government promised 700 rapid-build homes, less than half of which have been built. The Government bought 20 buildings for accommodation for asylum seekers and the reply to a parliamentary question showed that only one has been put into use. The marshalling of resources for the communities that are accepting people coming into the country, and for those who are coming into the country themselves, has been a disaster. The provision of psychologists, doctors, nurses and people who need to give help to people coming into the country has been very poor. People are ringing my office to see if they can get baby formula for their children. These are people who are living in direct provision locations.

If the Government wants to fix this and gain the goodwill of the people, I ask it to first and foremost listen to the people in the communities of Ireland, make sure we have a fast, efficient and effective process to identify whether or not a person needs help and then make sure the resources are there so that communities are able to accept their new populations and to properly integrate those populations into those communities.

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