Ms Sheenagh Rooney:

I thank the Deputy for the question. We had a challenge with respect to building a better process to facilitate the volume of offers we received, although we have always had checks and balances in place. Since January, there is a portal on gov.ie, which is the one place where a commercial offer can be put through to accommodate BOTPs. All the details of the approved accommodation categories are listed there. The Deputy asked about an hotel. We accept hotels, hostels, bed and breakfast accommodation and guesthouses if they have more than 15 people. We also advance non-standard accommodation. The portal has very clear guidance on the type of accommodation we accept, and we only accept it now through that portal. To date, we have received 1,400 offers through that portal. In general, people are informed where their offer is within three and five days.

Another benefit of the portal is that because it is a multi-strand accommodation response, on the portal it can also be seen that, where someone offers a private home, we provide the contact details for offers of a home. If a person has refurbished buildings, he or she gets moved on to that. It is very clear what we accept.

On standards, which the Deputy mentioned, the portal contains very clear information on the type of standards we expect for room provision. We look for details on the number of beds per room.

On child safeguarding, the majority of BOTPs are underage or with their parents. We have a requirement in the contract to meet all standards with respect to child safeguarding. Obviously, that is in place in large congregated settings like Citywest. All the requirements are met with respect to hotels. If there are issues, we investigate them.