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

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine one year ago, and the invoking of the temporary protection directive by the European Union shortly afterwards, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has worked intensively as part of the cross-Government response to the Ukraine crisis.

The operational challenges brought about by responding to the conflict are significant. Our country has never experienced an influx of displaced persons like the one we have seen over the past 12 months. As the Deputy said, numbers seeking international protection have also increased, adding to accommodation capacity issues.

Overseeing provision of accommodation on this scale during this timeframe for all those who require it remains immensely challenging. Due to the urgent need to source accommodation, the Department has contracted in excess of 43,000 beds to accommodate beneficiaries of temporary protection with more than 720 providers, including hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfast accommodations, hostels, commercial self-catering accommodation, scout halls, religious congregations and certain other repurposed settings.

The unprecedented demand for accommodation and, by association, the level of transactions involved, is significant. With more than 750 contractors paid monthly, the payments process is an operation of considerable scale. The Department is obliged to ensure that invoices are correct and while some are straightforward, many require queries to the provider and additional documentation to confirm what is owed. I am not sure if the suggestion made by the Deputy will help to speed things up in any way given the scale of the challenge we have with this.

To provide some context of the scale of the Department’s payment activity, from the outset of the war to date, the Department has made in excess of 3,900 payments to a value of more than €600 million. The Department spent almost €520 million on Ukraine accommodation and related costs in 2022 alone. Of this, almost €200 million was paid out within November and December 2022, including close to 400 transactions in November to the value of €55 million and a further 475 transactions in December to the value of €143 million, which included a number of significant high-value payments. This points to the substantial ramping up of payments in recent months. In 2023 to date, 615 payments have been made to the value of €96 million.

I acknowledge that due to the quantum involved, some providers are experiencing delays in receiving payment. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is mindful of the impact and has been proactive in implementing a number of measures to substantially reduce the backlog. As was done for the backlog clearance in December, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has doubled the resources dedicated to this task since the start of the year. That figure is currently at 20 and increasing. This has begun to make a difference.

Furthermore, the Department has just completed a business optimisation process to enable outsourcing options to be pursued and ensure internal processes are as efficient as they can be, including for all process automation. The Department has already begun outsourcing certain aspects of invoicing work to Pobal agency staff both to work directly on clearing the backlog and to engage with providers with invoicing issues. Officials within the Department have also investigated the feasibility of using other shared services options, including the team who process the housing assistance payments, HAP, payments for local authorities and other commercial providers, to consider further outsourcing and enable an enduring model, which will ensure that despite the scale, payments can be made on time. The Department will continue to dedicate internal resources in the short term to clear the backlog and will pause or delay work in other areas within the Department, where necessary.

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