Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

Quite a lot of whole-of-government effort has gone into developing information resources for Ukrainians on arrival. There was initially a reception hub in Dublin Airport, manned by staff from the Departments of Social Protection and Justice and our Department, which ensured Ukrainians on arrival were processed immediately and given a personal public service, PPS, number and information on their rights and entitlements and where to go for additional information and so on. We provided the accommodation service on site in Dublin Airport at that stage.

We have since moved our operation to Citywest and the other Departments have joined us there, so now a single reception and transit hub is in operation in Citywest, where other agencies such as the HSE, Tusla and so on are on site as well. Therefore, if particular health needs are identified, they can be assessed and identified at that stage, and good information is being provided to Ukrainians on arrival in respect of that.

When they are accommodated at a local level, community response forums, which the Deputy may be familiar with, are in place in each of the local authority areas. They bring together all the community and voluntary organisations, local State agencies and so on to try to co-ordinate supports and responses at a local level to ensure that there is an outreach to people in the settings where they live and that their needs are being met in a joined-up way. It continues to be a challenge to respond to those needs but-----