Mr. Nick Henderson:

On community engagement, it is important to start with the building blocks in place, which would be a national communications plan, which is totally absent, aimed at members of the public to explain why we offer people protection, where people are coming from and the decision-making process behind that. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said several times that this is one of the greatest humanitarian emergencies Ireland has faced, but thereafter there is not much of a communications plan. Members of the public want to see that there is a distribution mechanism, if possible, for how and where people are accommodated. Someone living in Ballymun may look across south of the river and think, where are the refugee centres in south County Dublin? That is probably a fair comment. They may have better resources than a community that has been under-resourced and in poverty for so long.

As I said, it is around identifying community leaders. Town hall-style meetings are not successful, which we have seen in places like Oughterard. Capacity is also an issue. Is an audit done to identify school places, GP places, higher education, if necessary, and transport? Those things are not happening, as we said, because the Department simply does not have time to undertake those assessments. How would the community be engaged in the support process, which is likely to take years? Centres are opening but they are not closing because of the pressure that exists. It is probably worthwhile to do work on that. Community Work Ireland has examined it. It is worth doing work on this that identifies and explores best practice because it will be important going forward.