Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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No, not for the first time. This is the advantage of contributing towards the end of the meeting; whether it is true or not, one can always claim one's questions have been answered. I echo the concerns other members raised about the genuine crisis we face and problems here that are being exploited, in a deliberate way, by an aggressive, dangerous far-right element. In recent months, there have been threats to Deputies, of which the Minister will be personally aware, and attacks on Deputies' houses, twice in one case. There has been an assault on a Deputy in the street outside Leinster House and assaults of LGBT activists on our streets, and there has been a rise in homophobic and transphobic violence. These are all symptoms of this growing danger the far right poses. Members of the far right are exploiting concerns, which are perhaps genuine, to drive a wedge and give themselves room. If we allow that at this small level, these wider issues I described, which are a threat to democracy and to our system of government, are only going to continue and get worse. They are exploiting those concerns, and fears are being whipped up, sown and spread.

Behind the crisis is a significant challenge relating to housing policy. For decades, we have not been doing enough on housing. We have a very real housing crisis that is being exploited as part of this, and we are never going to address the issues we are talking about here without addressing that. We are never going to address ending direct provision without addressing that, and I appreciate that the Minster understands that.

He mentioned co-ordination among Departments, which is what I wanted to raise, but it is important that the Cabinet be informed that, in the absence of our addressing the fundamentals of the housing crisis, the matter of accommodation is being used as a wedge issue by those who want to fundamentally destabilise the State and democracy, and that this is working. It is a genuine threat that we need to counter.

I am glad we are moving to a system of local authority pledges and a local-authority driven process. I had questions I wanted to ask on that, so I was relieved there is a move to local authorities. I very much trust the local authorities to do the job effectively. However, empowering local authorities to address this issue and the housing crisis is not just the responsibility of the Minister's Department. We need to find ways for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, for example, to empower local authorities to address the underlying issue, which is a fundamental lack of housing in this country. I appreciate this is beyond the remit of the Minister but we need the Cabinet subcommittee to think about how to address the housing crisis, not just the problem under discussion. The latter is but one symptom of it.

The other issue I would like to flag is a little off topic and, therefore, I do not necessarily expect an answer on it now. Other conflicts in Europe, such as the one that led to the collapse of Yugoslavia, and the various civil and other wars left a large number of children orphaned. A large number of unaccompanied minors were left seeking asylum, and that is likely to happen again at the end of the current conflict. We are in a difficult set of circumstances because Ukraine is not a signatory of the Hague Convention. Intercountry adoption will be problematic in this regard. I encourage the Minister to start talking now to the likes of Dr. Geoffrey Shannon and such experts with his children hat on, so to speak, regarding this challenge. There will still be people looking for intercountry adoption. A cohort of children will need it after the conflict. It would be best if they were adopted within their own country but we know from the fall of Yugoslavia that this will not be entirely possible. I ask the Minister to think in the long term and start having conversations now about what we can do about this.