Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their time and sharing their expertise. I am very disappointed to see that the habitual residence condition is still such an issue. To be blunt, it has broken my heart in my constituency office on occasion. I am speaking specifically of a woman and two children who left a domestic violence situation and landed in to me literally with just the clothes on their backs. The main barrier for them was the habitual residence condition. It added a level of trauma to what was already a traumatic situation and should never have occurred.

I am interested in the social housing assessment regulations. There are two local authorities in my constituency and I have noticed that there is not a standardised approach. Depending on where it is that people are returning to, the criteria used in their cases can differ from those used in other local authority areas. This does not create the level playing field that those who are returning home should have.

An issue that arises time and again is that something cannot be done until people get here. There is a certain amount that people can do when there is a planned return, but there is a substantial amount that they cannot until they are physically standing in the country. This creates barriers.

Deputy Brady has touched on the issue of engagement with the Department regarding the habitual residence condition. Have the witnesses' organisations had any engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the lack of a level playing field, for want of a better term, in accessing social housing supports?

Ms Owen referred to an engagement Crosscare had had with people who had returned after a number of years. What other questions does it ask them? These people are the experts. They are the ones who have left. Let us be honest: it is easy to leave but not so easy to come back. These are the people with the lived experience of that. What other questions does Crosscare ask them? What impact does it have on them emotionally, psychologically and logistically to be unable to find adequate supports when they come back? Are they primarily returning to their areas of origin or are there factors pulling them to other areas?

There is something in the wrap-around support system Mr. King mentioned. If it was possible to put it in place during Covid, particularly for those returning who had few resources to their name, were destitute or needed to come back due to an emergency, we should consider the matter in more detail. There could be an argument that it could work in situations other than a pandemic.

I wish to touch on foreign birth registrations. The committee received a briefing recently. Additional staff are due to be acquired. Disappointingly and frustratingly, though, I do not believe this will solve the backlog in the short term.

Regarding people returning and accessing PPS numbers, Revenue certificates and so on, do the witnesses' organisations have any engagement with the Revenue Commissioners on how that process can be streamlined and made more user-friendly?

Over the considerable period for which the organisations have been in existence, how have the challenges that people face changed? There is a housing crisis at the moment and, obviously, it is a factor. What about accessing schools, GPs and dental services, which many of us take for granted in our communities? Has there been a change in those challenges?