Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There has been and is, and the fact is that we have been able to manage 25,000 is unprecedented. There has never been a case of such numbers coming so quickly and we will manage the further numbers to come.

It is not only Government. It is coming from the bottom up. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, has informed me that in Waterford there are 20 people in the local authority working in terms of providing exactly that sort of response. Scouting Ireland, up in Larch Hill in the old hills of Dublin, is converting accommodation. An old convent in Templemore will come online in the next few days and it will provide a welcome home for people. There are further convents, in Loughrea and in Gort. There are numerous examples across the country. Those measures, combined with almost 2,000 houses under the pledge scheme which are coming on stream, are becoming available to the local authorities to place people in addition to the hotels, the other City West accommodation-----

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