Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question and points. As the House knows, my Department is providing accommodation for more than 62,000 people. Some 45,000 of those are displaced from Ukraine and almost 17,000 are international protection applicants. This compares with around 7,500 last year. To put it in context, this is equivalent to 1.3% of the State's population. Our pre-Covid annual total population growth rate was 1%. The figure of 62,000 is larger than the population of Waterford city and is approaching the size of Galway city. It is by far the largest humanitarian effort that the State has ever undertaken.

This creates a challenge for the State, but it also creates a duty on the Government and the entire political system to ensure that we can continue to support those who are seeking refuge in Ireland from a vicious war and other vicious conflicts. My Department has a Ukraine crisis temporary accommodation team, which works with the International Protection Accommodation Service on procuring accommodation. Alongside this, we have to find beds for those who are in accommodation where contracts have ended and ensure that no one stays in temporary rest centres for too long. This means that officials in my Department are potentially accommodating and moving several hundred people, many of whom are vulnerable, on a daily basis. It is a major logistical challenge and a cross-Government effort. My Department, the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Social Protection, Education, Health and Justice, and the Office of Public Works, OPW, are working together, with the amazing support of local authorities and community groups around the country. The Deputy is undoubtedly aware of the amazing work that is being done by groups across County Kildare.

There has been a great welcome in County Kildare. Approximately 2% of the total number of international protection applicants in the country, or 450 individuals, reside in Kildare and approximately 2%, or just over 1,000, of the total number of Ukrainians in the country reside there.

In terms of movement and notice, when we procure new accommodation for international protection applicants or Ukrainians, we also endeavour to provide briefings to Deputies, Senators and the relevant local authorities at official and councillor levels. In the case of Kill, there is no contract yet. It is for this reason that we have not provided any information - there is no contract to speak to. A number of issues and concerns have been raised. In our contract negotiations, those will form part of our decision on whether a contract is entered into. I am aware of issues around sewage capacity and flooding.

Deputy Durkan spoke to the wider pressures in Irish society, particularly the pressures on our housing lists. That situation is acute in County Kildare and west Dublin. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is rolling out Housing for All. I joined him and the Taoiseach last week at the great launch of a significant new social housing development in my constituency. It is positive to see that coming online. The Taoiseach and the Minister are considering new and innovative methods, for example, modular or rapid builds, however one wants to describe them, to form part of the Housing for All solution.

Regardless of what might happen in Kill and what is happening elsewhere, the accommodation solutions in this situation are temporary and should not be confused with the permanent accommodation solutions that we are looking to put in place for all members of the population who have a housing need, in particular those who have been on the social housing list for long periods. I am working on the temporary accommodation element and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is working on the permanent social housing element.

See this speech in context