Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the officials to the committee. This committee and the previous justice committee have done significant work in this area.

I have taken a great interest in this area but what concerns me that there has not been a huge amount of improvement. The talk, the interagency links and engagement all sound good, but time and again, the examples on the ground do not stand up to the presentation from RIA. In some centres, children are accepted into the local national school, but the support and services made available are very limited. In other situations, children from direct provision centres are not accepted into the local primary schools. The protocol should be that local primary schools are obliged to take children from direct provision centres and should not be in a position to refuse.

Today, I want to focus on emergency accommodation. I have a few questions, and will start with a very simple one. Has RIA ever been in a situation where it was unable to find an emergency bed for somebody who presented seeking assistance in this country? Are there any recent examples of someone ending up homeless because accommodation has not been found?