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

It is important that we do not mix up accommodation for Ukrainians with accommodation for international protection applicants in the context of our understanding of the crisis. We are able to provide accommodation for beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive. We are accommodating more than 64,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection. We accommodating a further 21,000 international protection applicants. That is 84,000 people. This is a large number who have been accommodated in a 13-month period. Undoubtedly, having to accommodate this number has put very real pressure on the system. This most clearly manifests in a situation that commenced from late January when we were not able to provide immediate accommodation for all international protection applicants. This situation escalated particularly in March when we lost a significant amount of accommodation. No one went homeless from that change but a significant number built up. This number is being worked through and as of this evening we have reduced the number of unaccommodated to 189 and we will have further reductions this week and next week.

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