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

The Deputy indicated that many of the properties would fail standards. Let us see how these inspections proceed because, as I said, HIQA will be supporting the properties it engages with in terms of setting out what the standards. There is going to be a supportive process to ensure that properties we are providing meet the standards HIQA is monitoring.

The Deputy is correct that everyone in tented accommodation will be moved out of it in the next few weeks. That is something everyone will welcome. Some 310 people have been in tented accommodation over the past number of months. As well as the reassurance provided by having HIQA involved in an inspection process of the direct provision centres, I have also discussed bringing in additional inspection support with my Department. Perhaps we will beef up the independent inspectorate company operation we use at the moment in recognition of the fact that a much larger number of centres are being used for accommodation right now in the context of both international protection and Ukraine. We need to ensure that we have the capacity to get out to see what is happening and to proactively and responsibly engage in respect of issues that arise.

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