Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

A huge amount of money is being spent, as I am sure the Deputy appreciates. I want to emphasise that the main driver of that amount of money is the number of people who are in the accommodation. It costs the State €30,000 a year to accommodate a person in a commercial, private sector entity. It costs €12,000 per year to accommodate somebody in a State entity. I have introduced a new rate card. The purpose of the rate card is to renegotiate contracts that were put in place in 2022 or 2023. I am pleased to say that the new rate card is having a good impact and already I have got 96 new lower rates than what was there before.