Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said during an earlier contribution, we in County Clare are very proud of the response we have made over the past 16 or so months in providing refugee accommodation. There has been a sea change in the approach on the ground, from an official point of view, over recent months. Twelve months ago, there were boots on the ground from many Government agencies, which were co-ordinating this very well and sharing a lot of very useful information. There was huge public buy-in.

If we fast forward to last week and the situation at Magowna House, the level of information that came to us as elected representatives and to the public was absolutely reprehensible. What was most striking of all was that the director of service at Clare County Council, who is a fantastic official and was appointed to lead out this response in the county, knew nothing whatsoever about it. Last night, a similar situation unfolded in the beautiful north Clare town of Corrofin, where there was a belief that another centre was opening. Again, there was no information and there was a protest and a counterprotest. Today, it transpired there was no contract on either side.

As elected representatives, we are very much firefighting. All we need is a decent set of information out there. Some people will like that and some will not but there needs to be better engagement. The director of service at the council who is co-ordinating this should know at all times what is going on. It is not his fault. Someone in the Department is not doing their job.

See this speech in context