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

I thank the Deputy. I agree with her initial comments on our approach and the misuse of concerns by certain nefarious groups, and we are aware of that.

In terms of the assistance from other Departments, and particularly in terms of the move to a longer-term accommodation approach, we are working closely with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That Department, through the local authorities, will take the lead action in terms of the new vacant homes call that will come at the end of the month. As the Deputy will be aware, we were involved with the Irish Red Cross in the first pledge process, which, despite the legitimate criticisms of it, has resulted in 5,500 people being accommodated. That is significant. This new call will be led through local authorities and overseen by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That is an important support. Likewise, the refurbishment of large-scale residential or institutional buildings is being led through that Department. I hope to see that start to deliver a significant number of beds early in the new year. Those measures along with the delivery of modular housing will be important where hotels decide they want to return to tourism for the summer season. Those are measures we are taking. The Taoiseach has certainly spoken of maybe increasing our modular output but we do not have absolute line of sight on everything coming into the spring. We may well look to the third level sector again. It provided considerable support this year and there may well be requests going in there as we go into next summer. There will continue to be pressure on this area.

I engage regularly with the Irish Refugee Council and a range of other NGOs. The Deputy rightly referenced tented accommodation. We are now looking to end the use of such accommodation. Indeed, some of the people living in East Wall were former residents of tented accommodation in Athlone. There are 310 in total living in tented accommodation. We will cease that use.

In terms of children and unaccompanied minors who are arriving in the State, the Irish Refugee Council raised concerns with us, particularly in the identification of the correct age to determine whether someone was a minor or over the age of 18. We have brought forward a new protocol. Tusla, working with my Department and the international protection office, has proposed a new protocol to the various NGOs. I understand they certainly see that as a significant improvement to ensure there is external oversight of a decision by a Tusla social worker that someone is over 18 and does not qualify as a minor.

Regarding the idea of a director, through what I see of how Government operates at present, I am not clear how one person can compel a range of Departments to follow an agenda. That is primarily the way I see it. That is done by the Taoiseach and the oversight takes place within the Cabinet subcommittee. The co-ordination of government response has improved significantly since the Cabinet subcommittee came into being. One of the decisions taken at the most recent subcommittee meeting was to ask all Departments to start planning, particularly for the resource impacts of the Ukraine crisis on them. We are - it is important we do - moving from that reactive point to a more medium-to-longer term planning element. All Departments have been asked to do that piece of work.