Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

The Deputy has articulated clearly some of the challenges we are facing. We do not want to provide emergency accommodation in hotels. We do not want to be involved in that business. It is not what we want to do. I hope the regional tender processes in seeking accommodation solutions will result in increased capacity to deal with the increased numbers we are facing.

In answering Deputy Connolly I did say - I also made the point in my opening remarks - that we had to be open to considering other solutions which would be completely different. They include engagement with NGOs, housing associations and so on on what accommodation they might be able to offer.

We have another problem. The number in hotel accommodation is over 500, while the number with status in our system is over 700. Based on simple mathematics, if we were able to move more people with status into normal housing, we would not be involved in the hotel business.