Mr. Nick Henderson:

Our experience over the past six months has been - and this is not to explain the lack of consultation - that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the International Protection Accommodation Services simply do not have time to communicate with communities. That is demonstrated by what we are currently seeing every day, which is homelessness among single men. The majority of single men are not being accommodated when they first arrive. The Citywest transit hub is at nearly triple its capacity. Ideally, however, there should be a process and a structure for engaging communities that is based on information, communication, resources and identifying and supporting community leaders.

Our experience of the last 20 years of direct provision is that Irish communities can be extremely powerful and can do amazing things but it is extremely difficult at the moment. That said, we would have hope. The Ireland For All communities that have emerged in Ballymun, Drimnagh and other parts of the country show that fundamentally, Irish communities are ready, despite all of the problems that exist, to help people but crisis recovery and getting a plan in place as soon as possible are really needed.