Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask the Leader when the renewal of the accommodation recognition payment for beneficiaries of temporary protection will come before the House. As he knows, this temporary measure is up on 31 March. It has been renewed twice over the past four years. There are many Ukrainians in this country - approximately 36,000 at the moment - who are benefiting from host families looking after them over recent years. This has always been a temporary measure, but it obviously needs to be renewed. We currently have more than 20,000 active payment claims in respect of hosting in excess of 36,000 Ukrainians. This is beneficial for us as a State because it saves the State money in terms of having to find alternative accommodation. In fact, it saves the State €1 million or €2 million per day in costs. Many of the families and people who host Ukrainians have never been members of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. They have not been involved in renting accommodation or been landlords before. They have done it out of goodwill. This is really important. It has been brought up to me in Tipperary a number of times by host families who are concerned about what to do for the people they are looking after and by the Ukrainians themselves. Obviously, talks are happening at the moment in terms of a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine, but I do not think anyone thinks for a second that everyone is going to go back to that country safe and sound in the next couple of weeks. Over the next number of days, we need to make a decision on what we are doing on this scheme. As the Leader knows, this has to be passed by both Houses by 31 March. When are we going to discuss this and hopefully pass it in the next couple of days?