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

I take on board the Deputy's point on intercountry adoption. We can ask our adoption unit to consider it and deepen our engagement with Ukraine.

The Deputy is correct about the importance of empowering local authorities. Both he and I have spent time on local authorities and will have noted the important and significant things they can do when fully resourced. The points Deputy Murnane O'Connor made on getting the funding for the directors of services were important. In fairness, that funding is from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It has been significant, as has the work on the community response forums for Ukraine that have been set up. Even though the initial pledge process was not run through local authorities, the final step, namely the allocation of housing, is primarily taken by them, assisted by groups such as Peter McVerry Trust and the International Organization for Migration. Local authorities are playing an important role in this regard, and now they will play another in running the vacant homes scheme. I hope the decision we have taken on the doubling of the recognition payment will make the scheme more attractive, both in encouraging more people to apply and in maintaining existing pledged accommodation. The payment will accrue to those who have pledged or will pledge shared or vacant accommodation.

The Deputy has made several important points on wider circumstances and attempts by certain groups to exploit what is happening here. Where people or a community raises a genuine concern, my Department and I will always do everything we can to address it. I have done that in other areas where concerns have been raised. We will continue to do so. We can work with communities in East Wall and other parts of the country to address concerns. We know, particularly from some of the online dialogue in the past week, that there are groups seeking to exploit what is occurring. There are examples of people aggressively questioning international protection applicants, using their phones trying to provoke them and the like. That is deeply concerning. The activity does not represent the relevant communities, nor does it represent Ireland's wider response to people fleeing conflict, irrespective of where it happens.