Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Some issues are more important than shouting at each other across the Chamber. This is a very serious issue. I assure Deputy Cairns that the entire Government and the Cabinet committee chaired by the Taoiseach are co-ordinating the effort concerning this issue. For the information of the House, I confirm that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, now intends to open 350 additional beds this week. This will make a significant difference. A huge amount of work has been undertaken to get to this point. I acknowledge this aspect.

The Deputy also asked about community engagement. My understanding is that the tender for this has now gone out and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, is leading this effort. Regarding community engagement as well, it is important that we also provide financial assistance for communities that have opened their hearts, homes and facilities to help with this humanitarian effort. This week, the Government will announce the allocation of a €50 million fund that will see every county receive a level of funding.

If the Deputy does not mind me saying so respectfully as well, I think there needs to be a degree of fairness in respect of the commentary concerning this matter. Ireland's response has not been perfect. I am not sure that any country's has been. We have, however, achieved an awful lot together as a country and the Government has done an awful lot in a short time. Just this morning, I was looking at the figures from before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and I think we saw 4,781 people come to Ireland and seek protection. We have seen more than 100,000 people come here in the course of the last year or thereabouts. This is a huge challenge and we must be honest, including the Government and everybody else. People are entitled to come here and to seek protection, but we must also be very honest about the accommodation challenges we face. We are working not on a daily basis but on an hourly basis to try to come up with solutions in this regard. The conversation at Cabinet, not that we discuss Cabinet matters in detail here, but for clarity, yesterday was about what we can do immediately, right now, to help with the acute situation regarding tents and then, moving beyond this, about how we can progress and turbocharge the progression at several of the sites identified for rapid-build housing, pods and other approaches.

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