John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

While I agree with much of what the previous speaker said, this Chamber is the citizens' assembly for discussion of this issue. We need to be courageous. Unfortunately, a previous speaker has left the Chamber. There are a couple of points I would have liked to respond to but perhaps that is for another day. The Minister of State will understand if I focus my comments locally or parochially on Citywest. Some of the points I will make could already be subject to action by the Minister, the Minister of State and the Department. They are issues that have been raised with me and I am sure they have landed on the Minister of State's desk.

I understand a meeting is planned in the coming weeks to discuss the situation at Citywest. The issue I raise relates to the management of the facility. Some of the concerns may be groundless but I will outline them in any case. There is concern that the current staff lack appropriate training in essential areas, including conflict resolution, Children First and child protection protocols, trauma-informed practices, human trafficking awareness and general social care and protection standards. Question marks have been raised around accountability structures reaching down to security staff. The Citywest complex, as the Minister of State knows well, hosts at least three distinct centres. There is what we would have known as the golf hotel, with 300 or 400 rooms. I understand it is still housing refugees but it is separate from the Citywest facility. The Citywest hotel houses more than 1,000 Ukrainians and then the leisure centre, or the gym as it would be known locally, has 30,000 sq. ft of accommodation. The convention centre is over 250,000 sq. ft in size and the hotel has 750 beds. It is a big operation.

One of the things we need to do now we own a significant portion of this facility is sit down and review how it is governed and managed from security right down to welfare. Concerns have arisen regarding security and access control. One of the suggestions made to me is that we need tighter control of access points and consideration of enhanced security measures such as the use of drug detection dogs. There are claims of open drug dealing on the site. Use of facial recognition technology has also been suggested. That is standard practice in some other IPAS centres and involves a swipe in-swipe out system. It does not contravene anybody's rights; it just protects the place properly. It has been proposed that there be a review of and greater emphasis on monitoring and accountability. I am not talking here about the Ukrainians living in the State. I refer to those seeking international protection and who must remain on site until they attain that. The site is not a prison but it is a holding centre for people in that sense. There have been calls for a focus on social cohesion within the site and off-site and on residents' well-being. There is a mix. I volunteered there for a little while. What I did was a microcosm of what other volunteers in south County Dublin did. However, I was there just as things started to get a little more complex and it was not just Ukrainians being housed there. I wrote a little paper on what I saw, which I will forward to the Minister of State. My time is up. Those are just some of the concerns that have been raised locally. I know the Minister of State is aware of them.

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