Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brady. Since the beginning of January 2022, more than 145 emergency accommodation locations have been brought into use throughout the country. All offers of accommodation have been considered. The Department is availing of hotels, guesthouses, repurposed office buildings, decommissioned Defence Force barracks and tents to try to address the shortfall it currently faces where demand for accommodation outstrips supply.

The State has stepped up actions to maximise the pace and scale of delivery on the accommodation strategy through the use of modular pod units and an expanded programme of work has now been agreed by the Government that will allow consideration of sites for development.

The Department is continuing to engage with providers of new accommodation. A number of repurposed buildings will shortly be brought into use as adult male accommodation. Two new properties came into use in the past fortnight, which resulted in a reduction of almost 300 in the number of those who were previously without an accommodation offer. As of this evening, the number of those unaccommodated has been reduced to 189. It is still too many but it has been substantially reduced. Further capacity is due to come into use shortly that will accommodate further numbers of those arriving. It is envisaged that approximately 1,500 spaces will be created from this accommodation type.

Accommodation has been acquired under the White Paper model. A funding scheme to support approved housing bodies to facilitate the opening of White Paper-related accommodation will be launched shortly. Work is also ongoing to purchase turnkey larger reception centres under the White Paper model. Work is also being undertaken to use rapid-build technologies to develop larger reception and integration centres under the auspices of the accommodation working group which has a mandate to devise accommodation solutions for international protection applicants and Ukrainian beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive.

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