Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The figures are eye-watering to say the least. I am a supporter of what we have done for the people of Ukraine. It was curious, I was talking to a member of the Government of Georgia recently. It has a similar type of population to ourselves and is on the doorstep of Ukraine. Georgia has 40,000 Ukrainians in its country and Ireland has approximately 100,000. I have no problem with the number of Ukrainians Ireland is taking, or international protection applicants for that matter, personally - or as a party - we have no problem with that. The money we are spending is more than €2 billion, and all of the figures are not in this. In a calendar year I am looking at approximately €2.3 billion here and I am sure there are a whole pile of other ancillary figures behind this that are not shown here. This is very simple, just feeding and accommodating these people. It really is an incredible figure. I am just curious and I saw one of the figures.To be exact, it has gone up by 95%. The money spent on accommodation has increased by 63% in a year. These are the figures for the last year alone. They are out of control. We have to do our thing. We are good Europeans and stand four-square behind Ukraine and the people coming here from war-torn areas seeking to be rehomed but we have to be practical. I am curious as to the Minister of State's further thoughts on the matter.