Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, an Teachta Ó Murchú, for allowing me to table this Topical Issue.

I am disappointed that neither the Minister for Justice nor the Minister for Education are here. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has responsibility for procurement, so she might be able to answer me. I refer to the whole situation of the procurement of hotels throughout the country, but especially in Tipperary. Racket Hall in Roscrea and Dundrum House Hotel are landmarks and beacons of our tourism industry. The beautiful Kilcoran Lodge Hotel has been in operation for more than 125 years. There are wonderful staff there and I sympathise with them. There is Hearne Hotel in Clonmel of Charles Bianconi fame, who gave us our first transport system. Throughout Tipperary there are hotels for tourism. I think we had a 25% reduction in tourism figures and visitors in January. We had a 30% reduction in February. If this is not alarming to the Minister of State and to the Government, that is shocking. This has been moved from the Department of integration, which I welcome, to the Department of Justice but I cannot understand for the life of me why the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has not had sight of it yet nor has the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy. I thank both of them for engaging with me.

I have tabled a Topical Issue but the Minister for Education, where it rests at the moment, is not here either. This is a shocking indictment of the democratic process and accountability in Dáil Éireann. None of them are here. The Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, has come in as the junior Minister. I mean no disrespect to her and wish her well but this is not good enough. I know the only area she has responsibility for is procurement.

I spoke of Kilcoran hotel. There is subterfuge there with shady owners. We did not know who owned it but we found out. The genie is out of the bottle. The owners, who have been flushed out, applied to Tipperary County Council for section 5. We know who they are and what they are, and what they want is a quick buck. They are not interested in the community.

Kilcoran hotel, like Dundrum House Hotel, has been home to so many christenings, first communions and confirmations. Indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, told me that, as a buachaill óg, he was a page boy at the wedding of his late uncle and aunt, who is a member of the O'Brien family and is living in Ardfinnan, in the Kilcoran hotel. Dundrum hotel, which was owned by the Crowe family, is a magnificent resource, but it is riddled with court cases at the moment. There was a hearing yesterday involving the receiver. A shady owner, to put it mildly, has that as well. It is being contested and the Wennings from America, who own it, are trying to get him out of the place.

The communities are not able for this. There are no GP services. There are no transport services. Kilcoran is about 6 miles from Cahir and the parish of Ballylooby. It is a wonderful beacon with great staff and it is just off the motorway. It is a great location to improve our potential for visitor numbers in Tipperary and the fíorfháilte of the Tipperary people for anybody who visits wherever they come from. We are not anti-immigration, but it is reckless in the extreme to take over businesses of long standing, which have given employment and are a valuable resource to the county and to all who visit, without consultation.

I have had some engagement from Eibhlin Byrne from the engagement team, but there is no consultation. The Minister of State is in procurement. This telling of public representatives after a contract is signed is nothing short of scandalous, blackguarding and disrespectful of elected representatives who are trying to deal with the community. The communities there are good people. In Dundrum, they have been at the gates for 225 days or more. They are standing there, peacefully protesting - they are not anti. The Ukrainians were integrated and working, but the Government is turning it into an IPAS centre.

This is reckless endangerment of an industry and communities. The Minister of State has it in her own documentation that the demographics cannot be changed by more than 5% in an area with an IPAS centre. Dundrum is being changed by 125% because, according to the last census, there are just 220 people in the village and more than 280 people are being put in. Kilcoran is similar. It is a rural parish and area. It is a great community with great people. Where is the spirit of the Gael and ní neart go cur le chéile in the dividing the Government is doing? It is not fair either to the people who go in there. There is no transport, GP services or anything else.

I hope the Minister of State has a good answer for me because they want answers off me, and I am looking for answers off her.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for equality, disability and youth, Norma Foley, who cannot be with us this morning.

Ireland currently provides accommodation to approximately 33,000 people applying for international protection and has also welcomed more than 114,000 people from Ukraine since 2022. Our accommodation systems have had to expand at a rapid pace over the past two years in response to this sharp increase in need among both those groups. The 114,000 arriving from Ukraine, combined with the significant increase in applications for international protection since 2022, have come at a time when accommodation in Ireland is at a very short supply across all dimensions.

In addition to the Ukraine response, the increase in applications for international protection places a legal duty on the State to accommodate the additional applicants. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country, and intensive efforts were made, as part of a whole-of-Government response, to ensure people in need were provided with shelter and support.

Against the backdrop over the past three years of unique events in Ukraine, increased need and the acute shortage of accommodation, it has not been possible for the Department to apply specific policies in respect of geographic distribution of accommodation centres. Consequently, every suitable offer of much-needed accommodation has had to be considered and appraised. However, in future, it is hoped that there will be a greater focus on dispersal strategies as we work toward a more stable and sustainable accommodation system in this sector.

The international protection procurement service, IPPS, tries to ensure, in as far as possible, that international protection applicants are not located in remote locations. However, given the demand for accommodation over recent years, this has not always been possible. The Department engages with relevant stakeholders and accommodation service providers as appropriate to ensure that international protection applicants placed in accommodation in areas that are farther from urban centres, towns or villages have access to transportation as a basic requirement. In situations where an accommodation centre is located without public transport links within a 2 km radius but where there is manageable access, IPAS will ensure that a shuttle service to a nearby town or a public transport stop is provided.

The agreement to not contract IPAS accommodation in a given town’s only operating hotel was agreed by the Government during this period of intense need on the basis of not removing an important amenity from public use. I note Deputy McGrath is saying that many of the hotels he listed were amenities up until the point of contract. This was based on not accepting new contracts that would take a town’s last operating hotel out of public use for events, holiday or business stays, and day-to day use by the town for food, socialising or leisure, or the events the Deputy named, such as confirmations, communions and all those important parts of growing up. Where a former hotel or tourist accommodation has not been in public use for some time, or has been contracted by the Department to accommodate people fleeing the war in Ukraine, the approach has been to consider offers from such a property, as it was not providing a hotel facility in that community.

Significant efforts are under way to source and bring into use suitable long-term international protection accommodation facilities in line with the comprehensive accommodation strategy.

I see the clock counting down. I think the Deputy will be particularly interested in this. Figures from Fáilte Ireland last year showed that 12,000 beds were returned from use by the Department's Ukraine response to tourism specifically, which were among the 15,000 beds returned to private use by the Ukraine team in the period. I hope this shows that this will allow growth of the tourism sector in the areas like Dundrum and Tipperary, with an acknowledgment of the contribution made by these areas and providers to support the historic humanitarian and State response to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

There is further detail and I believe it has been provided to the Deputy by our usher.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Much of what the Minister of State read out to me in that reply was simply untrue. Dundrum House Hotel - the famous Crowe family for generations has had that hotel - is the only hotel not only in Dundrum village, but in the whole west Tipperary community. That turns the Department policy on its head.

We have the wonderful Cahir House Hotel in Cahir operated by Robert Scannell and David Walsh, its two co-owners. They provide a great service. They have often told me they could make a lot more of money out of this. The fact is the Government is paying too much per night per person for this. It is so lucrative that unsavoury individuals are exploiting it and exploiting people who go to that accommodation.

The Minister of State mentioned transport. People cannot get TFI transport in Kilcoran and Ballylooby, but the Government is prepared to put on a public transport service for the IPAS people. That is discrimination against Irish people of south Tipperary. Why is there such an attack on Tipperary? We played a huge part in the War of Independence, with the first shots fired. Here we are now, with a vein of our hotels right through the middle of the county being taken up and the Department's subterfuge.

The biggest farce of all is we are now 120 days after the Government formed and we still do not have a Minister in charge of it. The Minister for equality does not want anything to do with it. She is not even here this morning. It is in her lap at the moment but it is meant to be transposed to the Department of Justice. I welcome Jim O’Callaghan and his comments and his actions so far, and the fact that up to 81% of IPAS applications this year are being refused. It is like we were blindfolded before this and our Border was like a sieve. There is messing around, though. I was delighted we moved away from Roderic O'Gorman's Department, but now it is in no man’s land and unsavoury individuals are exploiting the situation.

Eibhlin Byrne and her team are doing their best to engage with us, but engagement after the fact is not acceptable in a democratic society. There must be engagement. Politicians, including local councillors and ourselves, must be consulted. How are we going to explain to the people if we do not know and this kind of subterfuge and deceit is going on? Shady deals have been done with people who are unsavoury characters in both hotels I am talking about, and that is putting it mildly.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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With respect, I disagree. I do not believe that this is an attack on Tipperary or that the situation is in no man’s land. We have two Ministers engaging in this important priority area for Government. The relevant Minister for accommodation is the Minister, Norma Foley, who is the Minister for equality, disability, integration and youth, and I will pass the Deputy’s feedback on to her.

Since the Deputy’s initial remarks were specific with regard to tourism, wanting to protect tourism and getting many of those beds back into tourism, it is important to reiterate that, last year, 12,000 beds were returned from use by the Department’s Ukraine team to tourism. That is a progressive step.

Accommodation under the comprehensive accommodation strategy, CAS, includes the use of State-owned land for emergency tented, prefab and modular units, the conversion of commercial buildings, and the targeted purchasing of turnkey properties. This will include the design and building of new reception and integration centres and the upgrading of IPAS centres. It will be supplemented as required by high-standard commercial providers also.

As developing these more sustainable, State-owned accommodation systems under this strategy will take time, the commissioning of emergency commercial accommodation will continue to be a feature in the short to medium term. However, this accommodation will be concentrated on a short-term basis. If numbers drop, it can then be decommissioned as contracts expire.

As set out in the strategy launched last March, by adopting the mixed accommodation plan, the Government will begin to gradually move away from the reactive crisis response, which I note the Deputy has concerns with. That will allow the State to regain long-term certainty over accommodation availability and adjust commercial accommodation stock as required to meet the needs, and it will mean a far greater degree of control over geographic distribution, allocation and dispersion of applicants. It will also mean much greater lead-in time to the opening of new centres, which will allow for enhanced and more effective local communication. I acknowledge Eibhlin and her team, who have been in touch with the Deputy. The development of those integration links is very important.

The work is being progressed as part of the development of a new migration and integration strategy, which will shortly transfer from the Department of equality to the Department of Justice. That move is expected in the coming weeks.