Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to raise my reservations ahead of the opening of the new family hub in Dublin next week. Lynam's Hotel is due to open as a family hub next week and 38 families will be accommodated there. They will have kitchen and laundry facilities, as well as play facilities for children and places for them to do homework. While all of this is welcome, it is not ideal. My concern is that it is being operated by a private company. I understand Dublin City Council is leasing the hotel from the owners. The State will pay the owners to run the facility. I would like to ask the Minister to come to the House because I would like to know how much it costs to provide this service per family and per person and how much the company will make. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions because up to €400 million was spent on companies operating direct provision centres around the country over the past seven years. To my mind, they were never run properly and were never humane. It was not good value-for-money.