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

I thank the Deputies. As I said in an earlier reply, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has put in place a statutory instrument which allows for the conversion of office and other buildings to international protection accommodation, recognising the particularly difficult challenges we face with accommodating Ukrainian and international protection applicants right now. That is being applied in this situation, and this is why there is a change of use of that building.

This is not like other situations where my Department is procuring accommodation directly. Rather, we are working with another State agency, namely, the Office of Public Works, OPW. There are a number of commercial elements to its engagement with our contractors. There is nothing more infuriating for any Deputy than being told commercial concerns bar the answer to a question. I know that is frustrating. It is frustrating for me in terms of being able to get accurate information out to people.

However, significant work is going on with this building and we need to allow that work to take place before we understand its potential for occupancy in terms of whether it will be a building for family groups. As such, that will have knock-on impact on the need for schools in the area. As I said earlier, we now have processes to examine where new accommodation is coming online to make sure we can link children living in that accommodation to schools, either locally or, if there is pressure on local schools, schools within a wider area. That is the regional education and language teams, REALT, system the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, has set up. The system was initially for Ukrainians and now includes international protection applicants.

I have heard what Deputies have said. I recognise there has been an information vacuum which has created challenges for Deputies in ensuring the welcome they both spoke of which the people of Shannon will give to those fleeing war is fully maintained and there is no exploitation by malicious actors.

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