Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Government is developing a more strategic long-term plan to deal with the allocation of accommodation in consultation with local government. Government is also developing a more systematic approach to communicate with local communities. A tender process was initiated by the Department of the Taoiseach on 25 April to seek support and advice in the development of effective public communication in response to the movement of refugees and asylum seekers into communities across the country.

This is a short-term contract for a specific phase of work and the request for tenders issued to three service providers as per procurement rules. Those invited to tender were chosen based on a broad range of experience in this type of engagement and communication work. Only one tenderer submitted a response. Q4 has been invited to tender based on its experience of working on public sector strategies such as BusConnects, which involved engagements with a broad range of stakeholders and public policy proposals which impact directly on local communities. Departments and agencies have worked collaboratively on the development of more structured adjudications and Q4 will help us to strengthen this model where necessary and build capacity for more effective communication and engagement.

We have opened 150 centres in the past year and a half. It has gone quite well. We have had dozens of engagements with communities at a variety of levels as well and we have given information as soon as we can. It has worked well in many areas.

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