Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a year since the Ukraine war started and a flood of refugees started coming into the country. The past year has seen a huge increase in the number of asylum seekers coming here. I understand in excess of 85,000 people have come here from Ukraine and other countries seeking refuge. I commend the Government, Department and particularly the people on their response to this influx and the way accommodation has been provided throughout the State. However, I have noticed that in this country we often get the big things or polices right, as has been the case, but fail abysmally on the more detailed delivery. When people take on a burden, it is important the State pays them on time if it says it is going to pay them. The reality is the Department has failed to pay people on time and there are people who have been waiting months, perhaps with huge overheads and investment costs. This does not inspire confidence among bankers. Many of those affected depend on loans and funders. What is happening has great potential to put contractors off remaining in the system this spring and make them revert to offering holiday accommodation. This trend will be particularly acute in areas that are holiday destinations.

A very important role of the Government is always to pay people on time. Prompt payment should be adhered to absolutely. If the Department does not have the capacity to make the payments, it should farm out responsibility to those who do.

My suggestion is that it asks Pobal, an organisation that is totally controlled by the State, to make these payments because Pobal was already successfully given this devolved function by two Departments in respect of the rural social scheme and Tús scheme with regard to paying the wages. It was paying a large number of wages, which was quite complex, but it did so on time and all the time. The great thing about it was that this function was delivered from Pobal's office in Clifden in County Galway, which created some very considerable and welcome employment in that neck of the woods.

I suggest that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth ensures that all centres housing refugees be paid up to date, without delay and as soon as possible. In the meantime, a clear outline of the timeline of outstanding payments should be given to each provider. They seem not to be able to get that basic information. The Department should expedite the development of a system to ensure that after that, all payments are made monthly, as they should be. Finally, the possibility of devolving this role to Pobal's office in Clifden should be pursued immediately. One should always go to people who have a proven track record that they can do the job.

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