Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make clear the full support of Sinn Féin for the efforts of the Government to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine, but also to ensure that all Ukrainians who are forced to flee their country and seek refuge here receive every possible support. I commend, as did the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, the generosity and enormous community spirit of people the length and breadth of the country. They have opened their homes, pockets and hearts and we support them in their efforts to do so. Like other speakers, I wish to make clear that it is the view of Sinn Féin that this war is absolutely unjustified and the behaviour of Russia deserves the utmost condemnation.

In particular, I commend the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and his Department on the enormous efforts they have made to date in trying to ensure the warmest possible welcome and the greatest level of support for those who have been forced to leave their country. One of the great merits of the response of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is that it is seeking emergency accommodation outside the mainstream housing system. It is a sensible approach, particularly because it avoids putting Ukrainians who, rightly, are seeking refuge in competition with other people in acute housing need who experienced the rough end of our own housing crisis. At all times, the Government and the Opposition must ensure that, in everything we do, we do not in any way generate that kind of competition, or the potential resentment that could emerge from it, to ensure those fringe elements of our society who would seek to exploit that resentment are unable to do so.

I want to raise three particular issues with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for his consideration. I raise them in a constructive spirit and I hope he accepts I am doing so on that basis. First, as he knows, the Irish Refugee Council made quite a detailed policy proposal at an earlier stage in this refugee crisis. One of its central elements related to trying to access a small percentage of vacant holiday homes, with the offer of a legally binding 12-month licence agreement and a modest administrative payment to encourage people to participate. While the Minister stated that the Government is actively considering the issue of a payment, that specific proposal was not mentioned. As we move into the holiday season, we are already hearing from hotels that there may be some pressure in the context of continued access to beds. In that context, a call for vacant properties could yield a small but significant number of the 62,000 vacant holiday homes which are out there in the right locations, which would ultimately provide a better quality of emergency accommodation for the families in question, particularly from a child protection point of view, which would be more cost-effective than commercial hotel accommodation and which would involve accessing properties outside of the housing system.

Second, while I fully understand and support the Government's accessing of hotel accommodation through the international protection accommodation services unit, IPAS, there have been at least two instances where homeless service providers in Cork city and Wicklow have expressed some concern that hotels that would otherwise have been the primary source of emergency accommodation for families presenting as homeless are now fully booked up by IPAS. This is one of the imperfect solutions the Minister spoke about, but it is really important that there be the maximum level of co-ordination between his Department, IPAS and homeless service providers to try to avoid such a difficulty in as much as is possible. While I am sure that already is happening, I urge, as the homeless numbers are likely to increase in the coming months, that there be even greater co-ordination.

Third, where IPAS is leasing out commercial buildings such as hotels, there is the potential for a loss of employment for people working in those locations who may not be involved in the direct provision of services to guests or refugees. This is particularly the case with large commercial hotels that have events sections, etc. It would be very unfair, and potentially counterproductive, if people were to lose employment because of the need to secure those locations for emergency accommodation. I ask the Minister to pay particular attention to that issue to ensure it does not create difficulties.

As the lead Opposition spokesperson on housing, I wrote to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on 8 March seeking a meeting to discuss his Department's response to this crisis and ideas we have to address it. I received a two-line reply directing me to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and his Department, as the lead agency. On 21 March, I wrote to the Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage asking what advice was being given to local authorities with respect to the many questions they would face regarding the refugee crisis. I was told that, at that point, no such advice was being given. I wrote to the Minister and the Secretary General again on 31 March. On 1 April, I received a reply from the latter with more detail about the work the Department was doing to support the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and IPAS in trying to secure large vacant buildings and other emergency accommodation solutions.

Unfortunately, during all of that period, there were many newspaper reports claiming to be based on briefings from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or the Minister regarding the fair deal scheme and whether properties coming into the housing system under that scheme would be available for Ukrainian refugees. It was also claimed that local authority acquisitions, voids and relets would be made available, as well as emergency planning powers, to tackle all of this. Those briefings and the media coverage they generated have caused enormous confusion. It is a pity the Minister responsible for those issues is not in the Chamber to hear this. They had real potential to cause a lot of anger and resentment and they were deeply unhelpful. I fully appreciate the crisis situation the Government is dealing with but I urge all Ministers to ensure there is clear and coherent communication as we move through what will be very trying times for Departments, civil servants and the wider public. I urge that briefings be avoided where one Minister is trying to present himself or herself as being more active than another. We need to have clear public communications, as the Minister present has been providing to date.

We received a briefing from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on 26 March in which we were told categorically that all the media briefings in previous weeks were inaccurate, social housing would be used not for refugees but for the social housing waiting list, fair deal properties would be used for those in the private rental sector and no new emergency powers were being introduced, contrary to what we had been told. We were told, as the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage had indicated, that his Department's focus was on assisting IPAS in identifying large vacant buildings to be potentially refurbished for multi-family occupancy and on the provision of some modular housing for emergency accommodation. Given that, according to those officials, the emergency timeline may be as much as two to three years, depending on what happens in Ukraine, which we do not control, I strongly urge the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Government in general to approach the issue of modular accommodation with real consideration. There is no reason we cannot use new, good-quality, high-end building technologies to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable homes for a very large section of the community, including those Ukrainians who have no home to return to after the war and who opt to stay in Ireland. I urge the Government to learn the lessons of direct provision and avoid short-term, low-grade modular housing villages that could end up being accommodation for refugees for much longer than initially intended.

It is an enormous mistake for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage not to revise the targets underpinning his housing plan. They already are under huge pressure from rising homelessness, a shrinking private rental sector, low private sector supply, rising housing prices and rents, and inflationary pressures. If we are to ensure that the long-term housing needs of Ukrainian refugees who stay in Ireland are met at some future point, now is the time to revise those targets and push them upwards. I see no reason for the Government to stand by its current plan or housing targets.

I thank the Ministers for the information they provided. As Sinn Féin housing spokesperson, I stress the need for a new housing plan that can meet the housing needs of all sections of society, from refugees to the homeless and everybody in between. I urge the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to take that point back to Cabinet and impress it upon his colleagues.

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