Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not intend to protract the address of this issue. The suitability of the accommodation or the conditions - the acceptance of the circumstances - is one matter and the question in relation to the suitability of the location is another. The Minister of State must examine the needs of these people in the round. It is not only that there may be a comfortable bed in a relatively acceptable standard of accommodation. There are a whole lot of other issues. There are language issues. There are all sorts of real problems. One must remember that these people did not come here in a single tranche. They are coming from a variety of different backgrounds with an inability to communicate, even among themselves. Among them, there are families with children. The situation, I believe, is not appropriate.

I add this further shocking fact. I am told that, because it is not direct provision accommodation, where an issue arises it is the business person who has block-booked and acquired the hotel accommodation to allow for these 184 unfortunate people who is the go-to person.

I ask for a full and detailed response. I received a reply to a parliamentary question on a specific case that I put to the Minister of State. I expect that the Minister of State and his colleague are the authors of it because the Minister last week knew Fanny Adams about it - that is just a fact. The Minister undertook to come back to me but a week later I have nothing. What I am asking for from the Minister of State, as he indicated at the start, is a detailed reply considering all the points that I have made identifying the locations and what other salient information that the Minister of State can furnish to myself, as chair of this committee, to furnish to my colleagues in turn. I would appreciate that that would be done post haste.