Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have had a number of discussions in this House about migration and its implications for this country, but it would be timely that we have another discussion, particularly about some of the accommodation issues.A situation has developed in Shannon where an old office building was converted and upgraded during the height of the Ukrainian crisis to accommodate up to 100 Ukrainians, mainly women and children. The Department has now decided not to renew that contract and move those families from Shannon to Lisdoonvarna, which is quite a distance. Many of these people were integrated into local schools and working environment. The move has a very considerable negative impact on their lives. Let us consider that the move is in addition to some enormous trauma these people have gone through and I think the upheaval is unnecessary.

I wish to make a secondary point which is worth noting. This is a contracted office building. They are moving, as I understand it, to a hotel. I understood we were trying to get hotels back to providing for tourism. We are heading into the extremely important tourist season. It is clear some issues arise with office buildings that are converted to accommodation. Of course, there are issues and it is no different in this particular case. They have worked with the fire officer and the authorities to bring the building to an acceptable standard and it has provided very good accommodation for the past two years, meeting the needs of these people. We just need to review the processes and procedures. I get that there are vacant beds in some of the facilities. Of course from a value-for-money perspective, we do not want to have vacant accommodation that has already been paid for but we should be very slow to move from what are buildings that are not, or would not, go back into the tourism sector and transfer people out of the area. I would like a debate to be arranged with the Minister at the earliest possible opportunity to discuss the overall terms and conditions of the existing accommodation scheme.