Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate what my colleagues have said about a whole-of-government approach, led by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and supported by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Looking at migration trends, there has been a six-fold increase in remittances back to other countries. We are going to have to deal continuously with those issues. Those trends are only going to increase. It is important that we have a collective response.

Since the start of the war, our communities have played a central role in helping people arriving from Ukraine to settle in their new lives in Ireland. The local government sector has not been found wanting in stepping up to the plate and assisting families arriving here by contributing through the community response forum and supporting the rest centres. My Department is also supporting the whole-of-government effort on Ukraine across the three strands of the emergency refurbishment project, the Offer a Home call and the identification of sites for rapid-build homes. Some 60 refurbishment projects are currently progressing through the emergency refurbishment (Ukraine) project, which will provide approximately 2,686 bed spaces upon completion. A total of 228 bed spaces have been refurbished and passed on to the Department.

The launch of the unoccupied homes call, Offer a Home, took place on 24 November 2022. The programme is led and managed by the Local Government Management Agency and overseen by our Department. As of this week, a total of 1,430 properties have been recorded as offered through the Offer a Home scheme. Of those, 1,355 have been successfully contacted, with 370 properties allocated to provide accommodation for some 1,115 beneficiaries of temporary protection to date. Allocation of the remaining offers will take place as soon as possible and a new media communications plan will take place shortly to maintain momentum.

My Department is also assisting the Office of Public Works with identifying sites that might be suitable to assist that office in developing a programme of rapid-build modular homes needed to accommodate Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. My Department has notified the Office of Public Works and that Department of a number of such sites which could together accommodate 700 modular housing units, catering for 2,800 individuals. Emergency planning powers are in place to support delivery.

With regard to those seeking international protection, the Department and local authorities have key roles and are working with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to maximise our impact on these important fronts. This is being done through the work of the programme board, which is managing the transition to new international support services, and through the work of the Irish refugee protection task force, which is co-ordinating and implementing the Irish refugee programme. The City and County Managers Association, which is representative of the chief executives of local authorities, has established a new international protection support service working group and a land use committee.

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