John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is stated in media reports this morning that almost 1,000 asylum seekers are living in tents on our streets. This is at a time when the Department that is supposed to be looking after asylum seekers is rejecting properties around the country that have gone through the five stages to qualify. Alongside that, you have the 13,000 homeless. Is it not that time that the Taoiseach would look at these figures and use the properties that have been rejected, thereby allowing those who have invested in those properties to receive some of the supports that they expected in the beginning from the State? It appears to me that there is no joined-up thinking here, that the policy on asylum seekers is really a shambles, and that properties remain refurbished but vacant.

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