Dr. Fergal Lynch:

In terms of what Deputy O'Sullivan was inquiry about under a number of headings, I will take them in order. On the reception and integration centres, the initial work on that will start as soon as possible. There will be six of them in all, with 330 people per centre. We are conscious of the need to plan and organise those as quickly as possible and we are working on that as one of our top priorities in terms of identifying locations and putting them in place. That is a key part of what we will be doing.

In regard to the budget of €28.1 million, €12.5 million of that is capital and the balance is non-capital. It is important to say that we regard that as a starting point. We have an agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that in the event we require further funding during 2022, it will be forthcoming. I do not believe a shortage of budget in 2022 or in subsequent years will be an obstacle for us. I am satisfied the money we have for 2022 is a very good start and we will plan on that basis.

It is important to say we will be using both capital and non-capital money for these purposes. For example, part of the accommodation will be done on the basis of capital expenditure and partly on the basis of non-capital expenditure. We will be able to use non-capital expenditure for the urban renewal provisions and for a number of others. The reception and integration centres will involve capital expenditure. I am reasonably satisfied we can make a very good start on that during the course of 2022 and the budget will not be an issue as such.

With regard to the housing crisis issue the Deputy raised, certainly we are very conscious that we are attempting to provide additional accommodation which we regard as very important during what is a significant housing crisis. However, not in any way to diminish what we are trying to do, we are conscious that we are catering for a relatively modest number of people. At any one time we want to provide for 3,500 people working their way through the system. Relative to the total number looking for accommodation, this is small. I am not in any way diminishing the challenge that faces us but we are a relatively small component of a much larger issue to do with the housing crisis. That is a good thing in terms of being able to move ahead.

With regard to income support payments, a very important point raised by the Deputy was the fact that when you move to phase two, you will no longer benefit from the in-kind and direct benefits given to people in phase one. Clearly we will take full account of that. The income support approach we are designing will be based on a payment that takes account of the fact that people are now living in the community and have to organise themselves accordingly. We are probably looking at the supplementary welfare allowance or an equivalent rate of payment for phase two applicants once they leave phase one. That takes account of the fact that they will be living in the community and will have a much more significant expenditure profile and cost of living than in phase one.

With regard to child welfare and inspections, we place a huge emphasis on that. We have been concerned to ensure they are done properly. We have done inspections in the current year and will continue doing those into next year. At the moment, we have an arrangement where an external company does two inspections and then our International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, does the other one, so that is three. The other good thing that will start in the near future is the HIQA approach which will start with monitoring and then move to inspections of our facilities. That will be a very important step forward and will be seen as an independent, external monitoring of what we are doing.

In regard to inspections in the current year, if memory serves me correctly, although I will check with colleagues, we have done 55 inspections of facilities so far this year, of which 12 were done by IPAS and the other 43 by an external company. We hope to meet our full target by the end of the year, and we are conscious of doing so, in order that we will meet the requirement or target we have set ourselves to ensure we at least three visits of each centre per year. I hope that covers each of the points raised by Deputy O'Sullivan.