Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will take further questions on that. I know that consultation is a huge challenge. The Department has performed very well in terms of trying to deal with the scale of operations. On the consultation piece, as far as I can remember I have never ever received an email, letter, phone call, text or anything for 23 years and a huge number of people have been accommodated in my constituency, particularly in Portlaoise. We need to do everything that we can to help these people who are genuinely fleeing war, persecution and famine. We need to genuinely do everything that we can for them. In general, things have gone very well and that is good.

The briefing document supplied for today states, "Before the opening of any facility the Department engages with local representatives to provide information as soon as possible following the agreement of terms with contractors." I acknowledge that the window of opportunity is short and the task is challenging. It is a huge task and there are more difficult tasks ahead. As I was a county councillor up to 2010 and have been a Deputy since then, I have been a politician for 23 years. In all that time, I have never ever received any communication from anyone. I read about developments in local newspapers or somebody came to me with misinformation. You can see that an awful lot of bull or rubbish is spun on social media and on the grapevine about what his happening, what is going to happen and everything else but I have never been notified, which I find incredible. I understand that contracts must be signed and this work is a huge challenge. The Department deserves credit for the work that has been done. As Deputy Catherine Murphy has said, the impression is that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is very much on its own in terms of this work and what it has been asked to do. The public do not believe that politicians do not know what is happening. The people who elected me do not believe that I do not know. They think that I know and I must say to them that I read about something in a local newspaper, which is a situation that contradicts what is stated here.