Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

What has happened since is that a large-scale request for tender was published on 18 January of this year, with a closing date of 21 February. A compliance check process on the responses that were received had commenced on 28 February. That was paused when the Ukraine crisis broke as we had to divert staff resources to meet the immediate need of the Ukraine crisis. We have since been in a position to recommence the compliance checks as part of that RFT so we will see additional accommodation coming on stream on foot of that. Although I am not in a position to say, I would expect that some of the contracts that were placed in 2020 and 2021 will be regularised through that process.

It is important to also say that overall demand for international protection has been growing hugely. We have seen 4,500 people seeking international protection so far this year. The context is that our projections for this year would have been 3,500 for the full year and we have seen 4,500 to date, so the numbers are increasing very significantly, which is going to continue to put us under pressure in terms of an emergency response.

The original intention in running the RFT was to try to move away from our reliance on emergency accommodation and emergency centres and, as the Deputy will be aware, there is a White Paper for transitioning out of the model of direct provision that operates at the moment and an implementation plan has been in development around that. The ultimate aim is to move to a different model and a different system of accommodating international protection seekers that would see them received in reception centres, moving on to phase 1 accommodation for a period and then moving on to a different type of accommodation in phase 2 beyond that. The intention would be that all of that would be procured through normal, required procurement channels but, as I said, at the moment our overall capacity to respond is coming under pressure, not simply because of the Ukraine response, but also the international protection numbers.