Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has engaged over 700 properties to provide accommodation for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection. In line with the Department’s commitment to substantially clear the backlog at the end of 2022, my Department temporarily re-assigned staff from other parts of the Department to the payments team in December, doubling the size of the payments unit. The enlarged team approved more than 100 million euros worth of payments.

My Department is prioritising maintaining a practice of more timely payments, including providing more resources to address any issues. Any delays in processing payments are deeply regretted and my Department is according this issue very high priority.

I am advised by my officials that they have engaged directly with the party referred to with a view to expediting processing and prioritising payment of these invoices.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department is now accommodating in excess of 74,000 people, including both those fleeing the war in Ukraine and those seeking International Protection. We have contracted in excess of 43,500 beds to accommodate Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) in more than 700 settings nationwide including in hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, hostels, commercial self-catering accommodation and certain other repurposed settings.

As part of process improvement my Department introduced a new accommodation offer management process on 23 January. The purpose of the new portal is to streamline the processing of valid offers of accommodation and deliver efficiencies in advancing such offers.

All offers of qualifying commercial accommodation must now only be made by completing this updated form: forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=1kz3hc5GbkiOn5I9PDFbr_Cz53O-RQRNm66T3C8QKQVUMjhOMEVRN1BVWFgxNDVKVUVSTEE2MzlBNy4u.

Please submit any offer using this process. Offers will no longer be accepted through any other channel.Further information on the updated offer management process can be found here: www.gov.ie/en/publication/d3422-offers-of-commercial-accommodation-for-beneficiaries-of-temporary-protection-botps-from-ukraine/ .

The new form is part of the whole of Government humanitarian accommodation response and the Department's ongoing commitment to process improvement to respond to the unprecedented humanitarian emergency in Ukraine. If one has a query as to whether or not they have a valid commercial offer of accommodation for my Department to consider, please refer to these offer submission guidelines www.gov.ie/en/publication/615c2-offers-of-commercial-accommodation-for-beneficiaries-of-temporary-protection-botps-from-ukraine-guidelines/.

The offer submission guidelines provide clear information on the following:

1.The offer categories which the Department will accept for review

2.The essential criteria a valid offer must meet

3.Signposted information on other accommodation offer channels to explore elsewhere across government (vacant homes, pledged properties, refurbished properties), where an offer does not fall within DCEDIY’s accommodation categories’ scope.

Please note, as BOTPs continue to arrive daily my Department are currently prioritising larger capacity offers and those with upcoming availability. While every effort is made to review offers as quickly as possible, the levels of current engagement mean that it may take between 3 and 5 days for a response to issue.

It should be noted that all offers are considered by my Department subject to being offered through the above channel.

As of 9 February 2023, I am advised that 371 offers have been received. I can confirm that my Department has directly replied to 294 offers with the remaining 77 currently being processed with the relevant team endeavouring to respond to all offers within 3 to 5 days of receipt. Of the 77 being processed, the information requested regarding County breakdown has been extracted from our systems and outlined in tabular form below.

I can advise the Deputy that funding for accommodation for Ukraine Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection provided by my Department is solely from the Exchequer and does not contain an EU funded element.

As agreed by Government, a Senior Officials accommodation management working group, chaired by Conn Murray, former CEO Limerick County Council, has been established to support my Department, the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government and the Local Authorities in the agile delivery of accommodation required for BOTPs, including the programme for overseeing delivery of accommodation from those properties which require refurbishment.