Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

I will confirm the number we have in our international protection division. We know already that in further implementation of objectives around the White Paper process, thinking through what a future international protection model needs to look like, and the resourcing of that, there will be additional staffing requirements and we are identifying those. The immediate focus is on our need to meet the demand presenting day by day. We have had to reassign staff into the international protection division to support it on that.

Regarding the Ukraine response in particular, we have assigned 135 staff to a division that did not exist on 26 February. That was a significant operation in its own right. Along with the Ukraine division and its staff, the central functions of the Department are coming under strain as a result of the expansion of activity. For example, the volume of payments is having a major impact. The demands on our HR and ICT teams are impacted. There is no question that there is a-----