Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There are approximately 4,500 people living in international protection centres with status. We will not charge them rent. They are entitled to full social welfare if they are not working, although many of them are. Some of them are in centres where they get free food points. It is not particularly fair that, on top of the supports that everyone else gets, they are getting these additional supports, so we may have to regularise their situation and the situation of others compared with those who do not have status, do not get social welfare and do not get access. There may be some degree of equalisation, but there will not be any charging of rent.

The Senator spoke about a two-tiered system. There was a situation last weekend that we all wanted to avoid, where some people coming to this country were not provided with immediate accommodation. Some of them were international protection applicants and others were Ukrainian refugees. Both were in the same situation, in that we were not able to provide everyone with accommodation. As of lunchtime today, though, we have been able to get to all of the people we were not able to accommodate over the weekend, be they Ukrainian or international protection applicants, and offer them accommodation. That is a small, but positive step forward.