Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The fiasco surrounding the delivery of the national children’s hospital continues. It is a saga that has rumbled on for two decades. We have already seen the cost for the hospital balloon and almost double. Despite all this investment, the children of Ireland still do not have their hospital. It was supposed to be open by 2014. Then it was August 2022. Now we are told it might open in mid-2024. Ten years after it was supposed to open, we still wait with real uncertainty, even around the 2024 date.

If this debacle was not bad enough, this morning we woke to more worrying news. It is reported that the Department of Health seems to believe that there will be additional funding required from the Government and that it is bracing itself for a sharp increase in costs that will push the final bill beyond €2 billion.

Remember that there are some 900 claims from the developers to tune of nearly €500 million which have not yet been resolved. This whole saga has been an exercise in kicking the can down the road and God only knows where all of this will end up.

Years after planning was granted, nearly three decades since the idea the children’s hospital was first proposed, and after €1.1 billion has already been spent, the Government still does not know what the final cost will be, or when the hospital will be completed.

Let me be very clear on this. Ireland needs its children’s hospital. It is a vital part of our national health infrastructure but it has not yet been delivered. We have witnessed an ongoing saga of bungles, incompetence and broken promises.

Meanwhile, we have 100,000 children on hospital waiting lists. This includes children waiting for ear, nose and throat, ENT, treatment, dermatology care, and those children waiting in agony for scoliosis surgery. We know that delivery of the national children’s hospital would provide the capacity needed to get these kids off waiting lists and into theatres for their life-changing operations. Still, they wait and wait, the costs of the children’s hospital go up and up, and the delay goes on and on. If anything is emblematic of this Government's inability to forward-plan and deliver modern infrastructure on budget and on time, then surely the national children’s hospital is it.

There has rightly been much focus on the Government's inability to build houses, but clearly, it is not very good at building hospitals either. The question people ask is this: who sets out to build anything, no less a national hospital, with no idea of how much it will cost and no idea when it will be finished.

Leanann scannal ospidéal náisiúnta na leanaí ar aghaidh agus ar aghaidh. Caithfidh muid an costas deiridh a fháil. Cathain a bheidh an t-ospidéal críochnaithe agus cathain a bheidh sé oscailte?

The Government and the Minister for Health need to get their acts together. We need clarity and answers. When will the Taoiseach get to grips with this debacle? What will the final cost of the national children’s hospital be and when will it be finished and operational?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is í an aidhm atá ag an Rialtas seo ná ospidéal den chéad scoth a chur ar fáil ionas go mbeidh seirbhísí den scoth ar fáil do leanaí na tíre, ní hé amháin sa lá atá inniu ann ach sna blianta atá le teacht.

I first make the point that the children’s hospital is a project that has been ongoing for some considerable length of time-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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If the children can get in there.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----well in advance of the formation of this Government and I note that the Deputy’s comment is very much focused on this Government. For future generations of children and the children of today it is one of the most important projects that is being managed by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, NPHDB, and that the Government is clearly overseeing. I am in no doubt as to the benefits to be derived for the children of Ireland from building a first class, world-class hospital which we need. That is the first point I make and it is the objective of the Government to complete this hospital.

That said, this is a commercial contract and, yes, the developer has submitted a whole range of claims. Deputy McDonald has mentioned 500. Many of those claims made earlier on were not substantiated, there is arbitration and a process has been put in place. The developer or contractor may very well submit a claim, and they are entitled to do so, but equally the NPHDB, the hospital development board, is entitled to defend those claims which it considers inappropriate and which is in line with the provisions of public works contracts.

The Deputy has asked me to give an estimate of the ultimate cost. That would be a mistake because if one is interested in costs, a person does not announce to the contractor the level to which one wants to go to. That is the wrong approach to take now. The approach we have taken, and I am very clear on this in government, is that we proceed to have the hospital completed and have a parallel process where if claims are made in respect of costs, they are defended by the hospital development board. In many ways I take the view that I will not go into any ballpark figures and have no intention of doing so because to do that would only disadvantage the taxpayer-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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A blank cheque.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and disadvantage the State. I am very clear that we need to complete this hospital and to create a first-class facility. We also acknowledge the work done in Tallaght and the paediatric outpatient and emergency centre that was opened there as part of this project. By November 2021 it would address up to 17,000 outpatient and 25,000 emergency attendances alone. The facility at Connolly Hospital in 2021 saw over 11,000 urgent care attendances and 13,000 outpatients. Within one year of the opening of the Connolly facility, there was a 65% reduction in general paediatric waiting lists.

There are issues. The war in Ukraine and the cost of building materials will impact, as they have on all construction projects. The Deputy is correct in saying €1.1 billion of the Government’s-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Taxpayers’ money.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----approved €1.433 billion has been drawn down to date. It is a live contract and I am not going to prejudice the enforcement of that existing contract by getting into a decision about cost, hypothetical or otherwise, at this particular time. I do not think that would be advantageous to the taxpayer.

I visited the hospital recently on 17 November. Substantial progress has been achieved and it is quite impressive. The integrity of the design as originally laid out is being followed-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Taoiseach’s time is up.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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It is a blank cheque.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and this is something that we need to complete as quickly as we can.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Whatever about it being disadvantageous for the Taoiseach to give a final figure of costs to the Dáil, let me tell the Taoiseach that it is wholly disadvantageous and unacceptable that the Government has set out on this project with a totally open-ended contract, playing advantage at every turn to the developer, such that we have spent €1.1 billion of taxpayers’ money.

We have €500 million of developer claims outstanding and we have a Government, Taoiseach and Minister for Health with no notion of what the final bill will be. That is not accountability for taxpayer money and is certainly not a way to do business. Is it the Taoiseach's understanding that there will be a request for further funding for the children's hospital? When will it be made? Has he any notion what the quantum of it will be? I do not accept his answer that he cannot tell people how much this piece of infrastructure will cost, but can he tell us when it will be open and operational?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Construction started in 2016 on this hospital. This Government came in last year. I am intrigued by the Deputy's line of questioning. She seems to be suggesting-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Do not analyse my question. Give an answer.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----that we play the contractor's game.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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You did.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Taoiseach, without interruption.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy seems to want the Government to look at it from the perspective of the contractor. Her estimates are the contractor's estimates of the claims. That does not mean that ultimately becomes a reality. Each claim is being contested through a process. Many have been contested and there is a system of arbitration. It would be foolhardy and wrong for me, the Government or the Deputy opposite to put a figure out there.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Please do not point at me.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That would not be the correct approach and the last thing politicians should do in terms of projects, which I religiously avoid,-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Is have any notion of cost.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Would the Deputy pay all the claims?

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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There should be a budget. Where is the budget?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----is to announce global figures that X project will cost X, Y or Z. The Deputy is trying to create a narrative that the claims are a new reality, but those claims will be contested by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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It should have been budgeted for.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government will hold firm on this. We are in a process but will get this hospital complete and are working with all concerned.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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When will it be?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I raise the increasingly desperate plight of many at the sharp end of the housing disaster. I am not just speaking about the 11,000 people we now know are on the homeless list, including many thousands of children. That is bad and shocking enough as a figure, but there are many more living in precarious accommodation, facing eviction and who do not know where they will have to move to.

Last week I raised the plight of residents of a shared house in Rathmines Road in my constituency faced with an eviction notice where a landlord wishes to sell, with no inkling of where they will be able to move to. Today, I raise another group of people in my constituency, a stone's throw from where I live, in the ironically named Liberty Lane off Camden Street. I commend Kitty Holland in The Irish Timeson writing of their plight this morning.

I visited Liberty Lane this morning. There is a prefabricated structure that looks like a temporary office block in which 27 people live. These 27 people are being charged between €500 and €600 per month and are sharing three toilets, two showers and one kitchen in a prefab structure that is now being closed down as a fire hazard. They work and study here, and contribute to our economy. They are people from other countries who cannot source appropriate accommodation anywhere in Dublin. This is one example of the sharp end of the housing disaster.

Yesterday the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, revealed that the rental market has shrunk by 43,000 homes in the last five years, with many landlords seeking to exit the market. That gives a clear picture of the acute and desperate crisis facing renters. There is precarious accommodation, in many cases unsuitable or inappropriate. If ours was a functioning housing system, many of those in such precarious accommodation would have been housed in public housing on public land. Instead, we saw four wasted years between 2016 and 2020, where Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael squandered prosperity and did not put investment into building the necessary homes.

What can be done now? Yesterday, our colleague, Senator Moynihan, in the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage asked the RTB if it could alert local authorities to renters in receipt of housing assistance payment, HAP, or rental accommodation scheme, RAS, so those individuals could be prioritised for the tenant in situscheme. In other words, the RTB could assist councils to ensure people are saved from homelessness where there is an eviction. We got in response from the RTB a confirmation that this was not in its power to do and it was a matter for Government to make a change in policy to require it.

I raised this last week and the Taoiseach told me the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage was examining the matter of the tenant in situscheme and whether the RTB and local authorities can work together to address the issue. Will he give us an update on the issue?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising what I have said consistently is the most important issue facing us as a society and will be for some time, namely, the provision of adequate housing to deal with a population which is growing significantly and is now over 5 million people. The Government is on track to meet its targets for completions this year as set out in Housing for All and could well exceed them. Supply is ultimately the most effective way to deal with the housing crisis. We need to increase supply on an annual basis of all types of housing, including cost rental, social housing by both approved social housing bodies and local authorities, affordable housing and the private market.

On the issue the Deputy identified from The Irish Timesstory this morning by Kitty Holland, I commend the planning section of Dublin City Council on taking the necessary enforcement action. That is an enforcement issue. No one should ever be put in such accommodation------

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Absolutely.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----including students coming from abroad. That is an enforcement issue. I commend the council on taking action because it is dangerous. Lives could be lost in a situation like that if proper fire precautions and provisions are ignored and a fire certificate not issued. I was concerned when I read the article. I think the council is pursuing the issue and taking the necessary steps. That can happen at any time but that it happens in the context of a significant housing crisis is reprehensible.

On the broader question, we have the eviction ban in place for the winter. It is significant legislation. About 17 Bills have been passed in relation to housing in the last two and a half years, substantial numbers in terms of rent and rent restrictions, restricting increases in rent to 2% and extending rent pressure zones, RPZs, across the country.

On the in situissue, the Minister has made it clear to local authorities that they can and should buy houses where somebody risks being made homeless by the sale of that home. About 600, since the Minister contacted them, have so far been purchased or are in the process of being purchased. I spoke to the Minister again this morning about that and he reiterated it. The message is clear to local authorities that they can use resources to buy houses where houses are being sold and tenants could be left homeless. This is an important piece of work.

On social housing, this year we are on target between build, lease and acquisition, hopefully, to provide 10,000 social homes. That would be a high number.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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Of course the issue I raised relates to a fire hazard. That is absolutely right and I agree with the Taoiseach on that, but the fact people were living in such circumstances shows the desperation faced by many seeking accommodation who simply cannot find decent accommodation to rent in the city because of the enormous shortfall. It is an indication of the increasing desperation of many families and individuals who cannot find a secure home. That is the problem the Government needs to address. All the legislation the Taoiseach described has not addressed that fundamental crisis and shortage.

Supply is the long-term answer but let us see practical measures from Government on the tenant in situ scheme. Let us see the gap the RTB identified addressed. The Government must ensure the RTB has a direction to communicate to local authorities who is most at risk of homelessness in order that we see joined-up thinking between the RTB and local authorities in keeping people out of eviction when the winter eviction ban ends. Finally, let us see the Labour Party's renters' rights Bill adopted by Government because that would provide greater security and protection to those in the most precarious accommodation at present.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Substantial protections for renters have been put in place under the legislation that I outlined already. In the budget, we gave additional resources through the tax credit for renters which is beneficial. Over half of all new purchases this year were by first-time buyers, which illustrates the importance of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home scheme, which were opposed by many in this House on the Opposition side. Yet, both those schemes have helped significantly in enabling people buy their house for the first time and in terms of affordability. The issue ultimately is to build more homes of all types. The focus must be on more social homes, more affordable homes and more cost rental into the future. That means schemes like the one in Shanganagh. I hope Labour will support the upcoming planning and development foreshore (amendment) Bill which makes amendments in respect of An Bord Pleanála. There will also be an amendment in there to facilitate rapid-build social houses on public land. There will be an emergency provision enabling the Minister to do it and to accelerate the planning. I hope that we will get the support of Deputy Bacik and her party on that.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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It is estimated that every year in this State, there are 360 excess deaths as a result of accident and emergency department overcrowding. That is to say double the population of this Dáil die every year as a result of overcrowding in accident and emergency departments. However, new research in Britain has shown that this is likely to be an underestimate. The Emergency Medicine Journalfound that there was a significant increase in the death rate for patients who had to spend more than five hours in an accident and emergency department. Senior clinicians have now also indicated a clear link between those who have to wait on trolleys and on chairs in accident and emergency departments and excess deaths.

Thus far this year, 100,000 people have had to wait on trolleys in hospitals, which is a record level. Thus far this year, we have also seen record waiting times for people who were seriously ill, with some people waiting 13 hours for admission in hospitals. Pets in this country are currently seen quicker by vets than patients are in accident and emergency departments throughout the State. Last year 75,000 people left accident and emergency departments in this country without being seen or treated. Accident and emergency departments are such a disaster zone in these places that seriously ill people and seriously injured people who went to accident and emergency departments waited for hours and then in their thousands left without being treated whatsoever.

In my area, sick people are being brought by ambulance from Navan to Drogheda to wait for hours, only to then be brought by ambulance back to Navan to be treated, such is the pressure in Drogheda at the moment. Long wait times in accident and emergency departments and the proliferation of trolleys are actually killing hundreds of people in this State. I will repeat that. Long wait times in accident and emergency departments and the proliferation of trolleys are killing hundreds of people in this State every single year. All we have seen from the Government on this is inaction. It is as if we have reached a tolerable level of death in terms of hospital overcrowding and accident and emergency department waiting times. Nobody is being held to account in HIQA. I have asked HIQA to investigate the effect that overcrowding has on excess mortality in this country but it said it was not even allowed to do that. HIQA cannot even investigate that particular issue.

Worse than this, when we have accident and emergency departments such as those in Navan and Drogheda literally out the door in terms of patients, when staff are leaving the health service in their droves because of the pressure and in the middle of the winter surge, the HSE has decided to close the accident and emergency department in County Meath. This is the same HSE which has now announced a two-step plan to close the accident and emergency department in Navan, which was start on 12 December and will be completed in the new year. The HSE has given the figures to the Minister for Health a number of times over the last year. It looks like it is using the Cabinet reshuffle and the maternity leave of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to force through its plan to close the accident and emergency department. Will the Government sit on its hands on this or will it represent the people that elected them in County Meath?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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At a more general level in respect of the Irish healthcare service, the evidence is overwhelming. Certainly, in the last two decades and possibly the last three decades or longer, the Irish health service is actually increasing survival on all the main killers of people. With cardiac disease, cancer, stroke and chronic diseases generally such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, the outcomes are now much better than they would have been 20 years ago. The survival rates for cancer, based on the National Cancer Registry 's latest report, are very impressive. We need to be careful and balanced in our description and analysis of the Irish healthcare service. There are challenges and problems, certainly in emergency departments. However, it is wrong to give the impression that the Irish healthcare service is actually killing people. It is not doing that.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Does the Taoiseach not think overcrowding affects it?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have to stress the point that based on the figures, we are now living much longer as a nation for different reasons.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Medical technology and medical science.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry; the health service has improved dramatically. Cancer care has improved dramatically because, and I stress this point, of the concentration of services. I saw all the protests against the concentration of cancer services in regions all over this country. I saw the pickets and large meetings that people like the Deputy excel in. While people in the Deputy's position are entitled to their view, I am not sure that the position the Deputy was articulating at any given time was in the best interests of patients. I can remember petitions coming in looking to keep the cancer service in a particular local hospital and keep the heart treatment in another hospital. We now know that having concentrated cancer services through the national cancer control programme and having brought skill sets together through multidisciplinary teams, we are getting better outcomes for patients with cancer. We want to be more ambitious into the future. We are getting better outcomes for patients with heart disease. We are getting better outcomes for stroke patients with some dramatic improvements there. We need to do more on COPD and there is much more.

We need to analyse who is going into emergency care and who is not. The enhanced community care programme is the way to go. We need to prevent many people going into accident and emergency departments by getting in earlier and by preventing. In my view, there is no point in senior citizens going to an emergency department which is overcrowded and which does not benefit them when they could get a better faster service and the health service is working on that.

Regarding Navan and the ambulance bypass protocol, the Deputy knows that Our Lady's Hospital already has an ambulance bypass programme for patients who have suffered a stroke, heart attack and major trauma.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Nobody is arguing against it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Deputy for it?

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Nobody has a problem with it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I take it the Deputy is for that.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I am happy; I accept that-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy needs to state he is for it because-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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-----but not the new one.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please, Deputy.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is a new one which stipulates that patients who are acutely ill will no longer be brought there. I ask the Deputy to think about that because clinicians are making these decisions and not him or me. Clinicians are telling us it is not safe to do what the Deputy is suggesting they should do.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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It feels that we have a parallel Leaders' Questions here because we put a question forward and a parallel question is answered. The Taoiseach is hiding behind the issue of patient safety when it comes to Navan's accident and emergency department. However, this is the HSE that created a warzone in University Hospital Limerick by closing the accident and emergency departments in Nenagh and Ennis. This is the HSE that has presided over the increase in adverse incidents in this country from 79,000 in 2017 to 105,000 last year. This is the HSE that has paid over €1.4 billion in negligence claims in the past ten years. This is the HSE whose plan to close Navan accident and emergency department has been condemned by dozens of clinicians who are actually working at the coalface, not managers in the HSE itself. This is the HSE which has refused to carry out a feasibility study into what it would take to provide the consultants cover in Navan accident and emergency department to make it safe. This is the HSE which struggled during the Covid pandemic because of a lack of ICU beds and is now closing ICU beds in Navan. I am asking the Taoiseach to get a grip of the HSE and stop the closure of Navan accident and emergency department.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is saying that the situation with the ambulance roster and so on constitutes closure. I put it to him that patients who are acutely ill should go to the hospital that guarantees them the best outcome. We need to be patient-focused. I put that to him very strongly.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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They just wait in the other hospital.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My understanding is that Our Lady's Hospital in Navan has not been successful in securing fulltime consultant cover in the emergency department. My understanding is that there is currently a registrar with 9 am to 5 pm cover, a consultant provides out of hours cover and there are four emergency department registrar posts which have not been filled. This has resulted in the use of locum staff. These are important issues that need to be aired in my view and it-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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It is the result of the HSE trying to close it. Why would one try to get a job in a place that is going to close?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, that is not the case. There is a whole range of reasons why certain hospitals, because of size, nature etc. will dictate to a large extent outside of the control of any authority where junior doctors will go into service. We need to have a more realistic debate about it. Fundamentally, if we can do it from the objective that the patient gets the best care and the best outcome, surely that is what we should all be agreed on in this House. I look forward to the debate on that.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The time is up.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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It is not trolleys and it is not on waiting lists.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The fourth question is from the Rural Independent Group and Deputy Mattie McGrath.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Yesterday, I called for a debate to be held in this House on the impact of inward immigration. The Minister with responsibility for immigration, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, responded to say that we are currently providing accommodation to 64,000 people, many of whom are from Ukraine. He went on to list the 17,000 people who have come to our shores are fleeing from wars elsewhere. He listed in his response wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, from where people have come seeking international protection.

The Minister failed to mention Georgia where 2,300 applicants have come in the first ten months of this year, representing a tenfold increase on 2021 figures. He failed to mention Algeria, which has seen the numbers of asylum seekers increase from less than 100 in 2021 to a staggering 1,318 for the ten months of 2022, an increase of more than 1000%. There are similar figures from Somalia, Nigeria and Albania. I am not sure if the Minister did not know the figures or if he was being deliberately misleading in his response. The Taoiseach dodged the question and he passed it to the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, so I am asking the Taoiseach the question today.

The International Protection Office, IPO, has witnessed a staggering 516% increase in new arrivals seeking asylum excluding those coming from Ukraine. That is an important figure, as these are not from Ukraine. No country can sustain such levels, particularly when we are in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, a massive health capacity crisis, which we have just spoken about, and a savage cost-of-living crisis.

Shockingly, 3,254 persons arrived in this State undocumented in the first eight months of this year. This is from a reply I received from the Minister for Justice who admitted that these passengers had presented documentation at their point of departure but were no longer in possession of such documentation when they reached immigration services in Dublin Airport. That is a scandalous situation, and they are the figures from the Department of Justice. Every sovereign nation has right to protect its borders and every State has not only a right but a duty and obligation to balance the needs of its citizens and its communities with the needs of those who are seeking international protection. A distinguished medical consultant in Tipperary, Dr. Mary Ryan, has expressed huge concerns about our immigration policy and the impact that it is having on the already overstretched and disastrous health service, and she has called for a pause. She is a well-recognised woman.

I am once again asking the Taoiseach if we can have an urgent debate in the House on this important matter or if a special committee can be established urgently to examine the impact the ongoing numbers of migrants into this country is having on our already overstretched and failing state services.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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As I said, it is vital that we have a debate on this. The public is asking for it and wants it.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy’s time is up.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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There seems to be a "no mention" policy in force in the House and elsewhere.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The first point I make is that we are in unprecedented times and the world is not in a good place. There is a terrible, immoral and illegal war being waged on the people of Ukraine by President Putin and by Russia, which is causing untold killing and untold damage to energy infrastructure. It has weaponised food and migration and it is causing huge uncertainty across the Continent of Europe and across the world in terms of economic development. The most fundamental outcome of the war is that so many young people are losing their lives on the front. It is quite shocking in the modern era that we are witnessing a humanitarian disaster on a scale that has not been seen since the Second World War on the Continent of Europe.

Since last October, the Russians have been targeting critical energy infrastructure and water facilities. Millions of homes in Ukraine are experiencing power outages. Supply of electricity to Moldova has been affected. That is the context in which we are having this discussion. It is terrible and the result has been millions and millions of Ukrainians have left their country. Ireland has welcomed and taken in Ukrainians, along with other European members states as part of the European temporary protection directive. We have directly housed 47,000 people who are fleeing the brutal war but the State as a whole in terms of private accommodation and so on about 65,000 refugees from Ukraine and from the rest of the world have been housed directly by the State. That includes international protection. That is not easy. It is unprecedented and it is challenging. We have never before had to deal with numbers of that kind or in that volume. On the Ukrainian situation, the vast majority of people have been mothers and children. Many communities across the country and many people have opened up and welcomed Ukrainians in, given the circumstances from which they are fleeing; they are leaving family behind.

It certainly creates huge pressures on our services. In my view, however, in a wartime situation like this, there is no choice here. We have to work with other European countries in respect of this. The most effective thing would be if Putin called off this war and if he stopped it. At the moment, they are trying to freeze and starve people. It is quite shocking what is going on. It is a premeditated attack on people and the basic necessities of life. In my view, it constitutes a war crime.

On the issue of international protection, the numbers have gone up significantly-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Taoiseach. The time is up.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I say to the Deputy that I have no issue with a debate in the House on this and I have no issue with a committee being formed, if that is the desire of the House, to get more into the details on the specific issues. Maybe that is something that can be worked out.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Any nation that fails to plan, plans to fail and we cannot possibly plan for the needs of our citizens with no limits or no controls on inward immigration. We therefore need a serious examination here. The Taoiseach spuriously waited until the end of his three minutes to mention the 17,000 people who did not come from Ukraine and the many who have not come from war-affected countries.

Migration both outward and inward has been a part of our nation’s history for generations and there is no denying that. There are many benefits to immigration and migration and we accept the desire of young people to get expertise and travel. Many have left our shores and have benefited from that. Many thousands of doctors and nurses have come to our shores at all levels in medicine. I was in St. Vincent’s University Hospital for six days last week and I got exceptional care in that public hospital. It was delivered by many new people from India and from all over. I want to say that they are playing a valuable role. However, we should take off the blindfold. The Taoiseach is not blindfolded and he knows better than anyone about what is coming in. It is downright unacceptable and he will not deal with it. He is part of it and he is obsessed with the word “Ukraine”. He is obsessed with it. I accept that we have to take in people from Ukraine. I am asking about the 2,300 people who came into Dublin Airport and who had no documentation. Surely, we are not a free-for-fall, or freeloaders completely and that they are not sent back. We cannot go anywhere without our passports. It is as simple as that and that is the way that it should be. We have to have respect for our people and for our communities. The Taoiseach is denying that. It is causing strife and it will cause more strife and angst if we do not deal with it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I assure the Deputy that I am not obsessed with anything, but there is a reality of a war that is on our doorsteps. There are 17,518 people being accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, accommodation. That number has increased. The average before Covid-19 in 2019 was approximately 3,500. That was the expected annual average that had been projected by earlier reports. It has increased significantly-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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516%-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Please.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and every country has its systems. We work within the broad European system. We are a country that believes in a multilateral, rules-based system. When people arrive under international protection they apply for asylum. That is then adjudicated upon. Lots of resources have been allocated to speed up the arbitration and decision-making of that.

If people's applications are refused, they can be deported.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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No paperwork.