Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I agree with Deputy Bacik. The scenes in Dublin at the weekend were horrific. Burning people out of their tents are the actions of people who do not represent the vast majority of people in this country. The Deputy was absolutely correct when she said that there is an onus on every single one of us in this House to condemn these actions unreservedly.

The situation we face is unprecedented. More than 100,000 people arrived here from Ukraine and other parts of the world over the last year. These people are fleeing war and bombs falling from the sky and women and children are being blown to pieces; we see it on television. That is what many of these people are leaving behind. When you meet them, they recount their stories and their concerns about the family members they left behind. We have a duty as human beings to try to do our best to help but there are huge challenges. There is no getting away from that because what we face is unprecedented. More than 100,000 people is the equivalent of the entire population of County Kilkenny. It is about trying to find accommodation for all of those people. Have we largely managed to find accommodation? Yes, we have. Has it been perfect? No, it has not. Have there been issues? Yes, of course there have. Like many other countries, we are doing the best we can in very difficult circumstances.

To be clear, there is a cross-government approach to this. A Cabinet committee was specifically set up to deal with issues facing Ukrainians and international protection accommodation seekers. Several Departments feed into it, such as the Department of Defence, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Department of Education, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and my Department of Social Protection. I want to be very clear that this is a cross-government approach. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will bring in significant additional accommodation this week, which will allow offers of accommodation to be made to many of the international protection applicants seeking accommodation. The Ministers, Deputy O'Gorman and Deputy O'Brien, are working with local authorities and Defence Forces and others on housing. We are examining rapid-build homes which could accommodate 2,000 people across 20 sites. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local authorities in relation to refurbishing buildings and how they can accommodate people. As with housing generally, funding or political will is not the issue. We are pumping billions and billions into housing and doing everything we can to try to alleviate the pressures we currently face.

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