Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I very much appreciate his acknowledgement of the work the Department has done on the response to the war in Ukraine. It has been done by the staff, not by me, from the assistant secretaries, one of whom is here today, all the way to clerical officers in Citywest working to help people move around the country. Amazing work has been done by the officials in my Department, and, in addition, we have had people seconded in from other Departments and agencies. I appreciate the Deputy's recognition of the phenomenal work that is being undertaken.

Regarding the situation in Killarney, none of the Ukrainian families or individuals in that hotel will be moved from the town. They will be provided with alternative accommodation in Killarney. We have identified one hotel and are looking to find accommodation for some of the larger families that cannot be accommodated there. What happened in Killarney is an indication of the pressures and difficulties associated with having to accommodate so many people within a short period. That applies to people coming from Ukraine and also the people in the international protection process. Numbers arriving from Ukraine have more than doubled in the past month, from 700 a week at the start of September to 1,500 last week. That is very much a consequence of the renewed targeting of civilian infrastructure by Vladimir Putin.

The numbers of international protection applicants remain very high as well. As I have said on a number of occasions, we find it particularly hard to source accommodation for international protection applicants. In Killarney, we had a situation where there was a hotel that could accommodate such applicants. The reason the Department sought to move international applicants there is that, three weeks ago, as the Deputy will recall, we were not able to provide accommodation for them over a five-day period and people were being turned away. I want to avoid that situation recurring. Much as I would like to, I cannot make a guarantee that we will not have to ask people to move in the future. Sometimes, people have to move if hotels do not renew contracts. In this instance, however, there was a particular situation whereby the need to secure accommodation for international protection applicants was significant. Through working with local representatives and others, we were able to secure significant alternative accommodation.

Killarney's profile as a major tourist town made it more likely than elsewhere to have another big hotel to step in. The same may not be likely to happen in every other place. We will try to avoid situations like that. I am acutely aware that this situation would have been traumatising for families but I am also acutely aware of the need to avoid, as much as possible, a situation where we cannot offer accommodation. The Department's most basic aim is to provide accommodation and meals to people. That is the core part of our role in responding to humanitarian crises.

Regarding Tusla, the Deputy is absolutely right that the vast majority of the overspend relates to those extremely complex cases in which not only the location of accommodation must be bespoke but the support apparatus of support staff, social workers and social care staff has to be put in to deal with the particular difficulties these young people are experiencing and the range of needs they have. Sometimes, due to wider issues in terms of security, risk of flight and the like, there may have to be multiple teams supporting one individual. These are very complex cases that always fall back on Tusla because it is ultimately responsible for young people in such situations. As I am sure the Deputy is aware, Tusla has brought forward or is in the process of bringing forward a number of papers on alternative care. Mr. Gloster spoke about that yesterday and one of those reports is on residential care. Tusla is looking to strengthen the State and community and voluntary element of residential care with a view to being able to rely less on private residential care. Complex cases often end up in private residential care but the most complex cases always come back on the State and those are the cases in which very significant sums have to be invested to provide and protect these young people with particularly complex needs.

The Deputy asked about the saving of €35 million. The biggest saving was €14 million in the context of the transition from the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, for early years providers. When the EWSS ended this year. Before core funding kicked in, we had a bespoke scheme in place to support childcare providers. The EWSS was originally meant to end in January. We had budgeted for the transitional scheme to go from January until the end of August. In fact, the EWSS did not stop until the end of April, which meant there was more money allocated for our scheme than was needed for the months in which it ran. That was the biggest element of saving.

The next biggest element of saving was on pay relating to posts within the Department's staff complement that we were not able to fill. There was also a saving on the response to the mother and baby and county home institutions, arising primarily from the fact the Tuam agency is only now being established, whereas we had budgeted for its establishment earlier this year. We got Government approval two weeks ago to establish it but there was a €3 million allocation for its operation this year that will not now be met.