Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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In seeking accommodation, the Department needs to do a number of jobs. It needs to find a physical location and make a contractual financial arrangement. Another part of that is working with communities. As the Department has been forced to act so quickly, given the numbers, it is the one area where I know departmental officials feel they would like to do more. We need to have more staff available within the Department to work with communities to talk to them about concerns they may have, to address those concerns and to meet community leaders in advance of centres being opened. The absence of that creates the very thing that many people in this House do not what to see, which is communities rejecting people coming to such accommodation. Does the Department have plans to increase that capacity?