Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We all know that there is a very significant housing and homelessness crisis at the moment. In his opening statement, Mr. Waters makes reference to the sizeable number of people in direct provision who should be moving on but cannot do so because housing and other services are not available to them. Is the Department dealing with that issue? Is this coming out of the Department's Vote? Direct provision was originally intended to be short term and this is prolonging something that is already overly long. I know that the time spent in direct provision has been reduced but it is still overly long. Is the Department engaging with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government on this issue? Is the Department of Justice and Equality picking up a cost that should be picked up by another Department?