Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Immigration will next meet. [9799/23]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on Immigration will next meet. [10953/23]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee dealing with immigration will next meet. [11020/23]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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17. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Immigration will next meet. [11361/23]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on immigration will next meet. [11364/23]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee that deals with Immigration and Integration will next meet. [11595/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Tógfaidh mé ceisteanna Uimh. 14 go dtí 19 le chéile.  

The Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy and public services. The committee covers a range of topics, including immigration and integration, in the area of social policy, with a particular focus on equality of public service reform. Other topics covered by the committee include sport, social protection, arts and culture and justice, such as policing reform, community safety and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

A separate Cabinet committee has been established to deal with the humanitarian response to Ukraine. This committee works to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the State's humanitarian response for people arriving from Ukraine who have sought temporary protection here. The Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services will meet in the near future to consider matters under its remit. Topics recently considered by the previous Cabinet Committee on social affairs and equality, which last met on 25 October, include the ongoing implementation of the third national domestic, sexual and gender-based violence strategy, as well as progress on policing reforms and assisting disadvantaged areas.

In addition to meetings of the committee, I also have regular engagement with Ministers at Cabinet level and individually to discuss issues relating to their Departments. Meetings have also been held between my officials and those from relevant Departments on a range of social policy issues.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Taoiseach as ucht an cheist seo a fhreagairt. I welcome the measures the Taoiseach announced today regarding housing, especially those relating to empowering local authorities to buy more houses. In the context of this ceist agus an fhreagra, we just cannot keep pace. I thank an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Joe O'Brien, who met me recently and went through some issues that were outstanding. There are many issues in the public domain. People have real issues of concern about how we are going to handle inward migration. There are two separate issues as far as I am concerned, namely, the Ukrainian refugees from the war and the influx of inward migrants from elsewhere. I am asking about security at airports. I am not a lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key merchant, but people are genuinely worried. I received replies to questions I put to the Minister for Justice last year. The Department is worried about the people who came here without any documentation. I got replies which suggested that they might have had false documentation to allow them to escape repressive regimes in some countries and that they got rid of it rather than have poor documentation. It might be better to have no documentation. The question is whether we have effective border controls at airports and ports.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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When did the committee on immigration last meet? What is the current capacity within the Department to deal adequately with the scale of the crisis? Do we need a new unit in the Department to work specifically on integration and on supporting refugees as they arrive here? Many of us who are dealing with the issue in our constituencies were surprised to learn that many hotels that and offered accommodation during the crisis have not received payment. We are again having the horrendous situation arise whereby people are being placed in tents when that should not be the case. How has that happened? Does the Taoiseach feel that too much responsibility has been placed on a single Department and that we need to work more collaboratively across Departments or have specific units with full responsibility for refugee integration and engagement in order that we stop seeing a recurrence of problems such as invoices not being met, people being asked to sleep in tents and accommodation not being provided for those who come here seeking sanctuary, which is abominable? How is this happening? What can we do better as we move into the second year of this crisis?

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I hope Deputy Mattie McGrath will pass on the information he got about repressive regimes to his constituents.

Communities across the State will be welcoming refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere in the coming months. Two things need to be done to help make the changes involved a success. First, there needs to be genuine consultation with community organisations. Suggestions from people active in the community on how things can be done successfully must be listened to and given serious consideration by the State agencies involved. To be clear, I am opposed to giving any one person or group a veto over emergency refugee accommodation, but genuine consultation is vital.

Second, hard-pressed working-class communities must be provided with State investment to ensure that social services, such as medical or childcare services, are not in any way reduced. In fact, the services need to be improved for them as well as for the new arrivals in communities. This is in the interests both of refugees and existing communities alike. Zero ammunition must be provided to anti-immigration agitators on this score. I ask the Taoiseach to reply on the issue of the plans for consultation and investment.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Currently, 13,000 Ukrainians who have come here seeking refuge are working and contributing to making Irish society a better place, which is what most immigrants want to do. There is a very significant obstacle for Ukrainians in particular in that many of them are single parents - women with children - and there is no childcare is available for them. We already have a problem here in this regard. What measures are being taken to expand childcare provision for people here who need it and also for refugees coming here who want to work, contribute to Irish society and assist us in dealing with the many labour shortages we have in areas such as healthcare, construction, retail, hospitality and so on, but are being prevented from doing so by the lack of childcare? What other measures are being taken more generally to facilitate people in the international protection accommodation services, IPAS, system and elsewhere who would like to work? It is often made very difficult for them to work and to integrate into the workforce.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Irish people have played a massive role in supporting and welcoming thousands of Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants into the country. Public service delivery to support this influx of people has been inadequate, especially in rural communities. Those I represent have raised issues such as those relating to public transport, mental health support, disability services and access to GP services. These matters must be addressed. We must do more and respond accordingly. Has the Government assessed whether we can utilise the services of professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists? Non-EU practitioners coming to Ireland must undertake an English exam to prove their proficiency in medical English. This is the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test However, Ukrainian doctors, nurses and pharmacists did not have the opportunity to sit the test in light of the war-torn circumstances from which they fled. Close to 400 doctors from Ukraine have been identified, along with many nurses and pharmacists. They are ready to work. In fact, they are desperate to work. They want to help and be part of the front line. This is a practical issue that requires an urgent and practical response. I ask the Minister for Health to work with the Irish Medical Council to ensure that all avenues are examined in order to utilise the professional services of these people.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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Chambers Ireland is the latest business body to tell the Government that housing is the biggest challenge that faces enterprise this year. Social and affordable housing targets are woefully low and yet the Government has been unable to meet them in the past three years. Time and again, the Taoiseach responds to questions on the housing crisis as if it has suddenly sneaked up on him. There is never any recognition of his responsibility for this debacle as a Minister in successive Governments over the past decade. IBEC has called on the Government to set a more ambitious role for local authorities and approved housing bodies through the delivery of more social and cost-rental units and a broader affordable homes scheme with a target of 20,000 units annually before the end of the decade. Does the Taoiseach agree that it is time for a significant upwards revision of annual housing targets for the next eight years?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies for their questions. Last week or the previous week, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, and I had a meeting with the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the border management unit of the Department of Justice to discuss some of the issues raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath and to examine how we can improve border security and make sure that people who should not get into the State are not able to do so. We have had very close co-operation with the authorities in the United Kingdom on the common travel area. What they said to me is that they have seen a big reduction the number of people who have come through the airports and claimed international protection. That is at least in part down to the fact that gardaí are stopping more people coming off the aeroplanes and checking their documents. If they do not have documents, they can be kept on the aeroplane. Gardaí have also been travelling to airports in other parts of Europe from where people often fly to Ireland. This has helped to significantly reduce the number of people arriving at our airports without any documents and then claiming international protection. I thank the Garda for its work in that regard. I also thank the airlines, which also have a responsibility not to allow people on aeroplanes unless they have the correct documents.

They believe - it is never possible to know for sure - that there has been an increase in the number of people travelling to the Republic from mainland Britain or Northern Ireland and seeking international protection here. We are not, for all sorts of reasons that I do not think I need to explain, going to start doing wholescale checks on people crossing the Border from North to South. This is an issue. It is one area on which we will have to co-operate much more closely with the UK - with which we have a common travel area - in order to ensure that there are fewer irregular arrivals to Britain and Ireland. This is definitely something I want to discuss with Prime Minister Sunak in the near future.

I was also updated on the number of deportations. In the region of 600 deportation orders were issued in the past few months and work is being done to increase the number of deportations to countries of transit and countries of origin. Bear in mind, these are people who applied for international protection and were refused because they were not entitled to it. Essentially, their stories did not check out or did not meet the standard we set for people to get international protection. It was pointed out to me clearly that even in countries from which there are large numbers of deportations, it is hard to make deportations happen and you can only ever do a certain number. Deportation has an important deterrent effect, however. If people believe that if they come to the country, claim international protection and have no prospect of being deported, this will increase the number of people who come here invalidly. It is important to have deportations in order to send out that message to people that if you need international protection or are a refugee, you are welcome here and we will provide you with protection. However, we must also be firm. If people are coming here with false stories or on false pretences, they will not be able, by means of various mechanisms, to stay here for years and years in order that they can acquire some form of status. People must know that we will issue and enforce deportation orders.

We do not have a Cabinet committee on immigration. The matter is dealt with either through the Ukraine humanitarian committee or by means of social policy. The failure to pay many hotels and accommodation providers is a big issue. Certainly, when we are asking them to renew their contracts, it does not help if we have left them in arrears. I acknowledge that is a problem. The position is improving. Additional staff have been provided to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to help with that. It has outsourced some of its processes to contractors, which has also helped a great deal. I think we will see significant improvements in respect of payments to hotels and other accommodation providers in the next few weeks. Indeed, such improvements are already happening.

I agree with the comment to the effect that it is terrible that we are accommodating people in tents. Of course it is. I hope that will be a temporary measure as we step up modular accommodation and other accommodation in other locations around the State. I hope we will not have to use tents but I cannot guarantee that we will not. How did this happen? Why did it happen? I would have thought that was obvious to everyone. We are facing the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the 1940s. People have seen refugee crises in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They know what those crises look like. This is the first time we have had a refugee crisis like this in Europe since the Second World War. Some 8 million people have been displaced either within Ukraine or outside it. Approximately, 1% of the latter have come to Ireland. We are doing our best to provide shelter for them. It is off the scale in terms of anything we would ever have planned for. Even if we had remarkable foresight two years ago, had known that Vladimir Putin was going to invade Ukraine, had know the number of people who would seek international protection would treble and had built a city the size of Waterford and comprising 20,000 houses and apartments, it would be full by now. That is the scale of the challenge we are facing. I met other European Heads of Government in February to discuss this matter. All 27 member states across the European Union are facing the same challenges in trying to find accommodation for a huge number of people who have been forced to leave Ukraine or who are coming into Europe from other parts of the world.