Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is the case that there are almost 1,000 asylum seekers who have sought accommodation by the State and have not received it. We are just no longer in a position to provide State accommodation to every asylum seeker that comes into the country. We need to make sure people know that. If they are leaving another safe country where they have accommodation, they should know that it is inadvisable to come to Ireland, at least until we are in a much better space around accommodation. It is not the case that they are all in tents or on the streets. Many have found accommodation, often with people they know from back home or through the various networks that people have.

With regard to those properties, I am not familiar with them. There may be a good reason; there might not be. If there are two or three the Deputy is particularly aware of, he might give the information and some details on them and I will get my people to follow it up to see if there is a good reason. Sometimes there is a good reason that the owner might not tell you but that might not be the case, so let us look into it.

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