Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2023
66. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on new accommodation being procured in County Clare to cater for those entering Ireland seeking international protection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6056/23]
View answer102. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department will proceed with plans to convert a vacant unit (details supplied) into emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5664/23]
View answerSince March last year County Clare has welcomed thousands of Ukrainian and international protection refugees. It is important to note that these refugees have been warmly welcomed and provided for in County Clare. Frustratingly, the high level of stakeholder engagement and boots-on-the-ground co-ordination we saw in March last year has all but disappeared and evaporated. The oversight and co-ordination from the Minister's Department in towns such as Ennistymon and Shannon is utterly insufficient at this time. I ask the Minister for an update on new accommodation the Minister's Department and the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, are procuring in County Clare. Not all of the 75,000 beds are quality beds. Some 86 of them in my home village are in tents. We need a decision today about whether that will continue. Will we keep people in tents?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 102 together.
The arrival of more than 70,000 people seeking accommodation in Ireland, displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine - the largest displacement of people in Europe since the Second World War - and those seeking international protection has placed severe pressure on the State to respond to this challenge. As of 29 January 2023,19,635 people are accommodated in the international protection system as a whole, compared with 7,500 in late 2021. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country. Approximately 60 accommodation locations across 17 counties have been utilised since January 2022.
In regard to international protection applicants, all the limited accommodation capacity in the IPAS is currently being used. In this context, the Department has no option but to consider all offers of accommodation made to it, including the use of office buildings and sports facilities, to address the accommodation shortfall. While offers of accommodation received from locations in Clare will continue to be appraised, my Department is working with the Office of Public Works, OPW, to develop a proposal to use a State-owned property in Shannon, Unit 153 of the Shannon Free Zone, for IPAS accommodation. Engagement is ongoing. It is not possible to provide final details prior to designs being decided and a facilities provider is contracted to operate the facility. It is anticipated that the property will come online later this year.
The OPW confirmed on 30 January that the fire officer had reviewed the proposals for Unit 153 and was satisfied the design meets fire safety requirements. The OPW awaits a final formal approval from the fire officer but is confident that the layouts shown are acceptable. The OPW does not envisage any problems and is progressing on this basis in order to expedite the project. The International Protection Procurement Services, IPPS, advised the OPW it is satisfied with the proposed design. The next step is for the OPW to move to detailed design and request a contractor to price the works. The OPW will review the price proposal and if it is fair and reasonable will progress the project with the current contractor. If the price is regarded as excessive the detailed design will be issued to the other framework members to price. The design team met again on 2 February and were asked when it expects to be in a position to give indicative timescales for the delivery of detailed designs, costings and a start date for occupancy. The OPW has been requested to revert with this information to the IPPS as soon as possible.
In December I was contacted by a number of Shannon residents asking whether stories they had heard on the rumour mill about an accommodation facility in a factory were true. I asked a parliamentary question because I did not know anything about it. In early January I received a reply from the Minister stating it was commercially sensitive. There was not a scintilla of information after that. I am now getting a litany of information. It is not good enough.
That information vacuum has led many people to ask legitimate questions in the town, but it has also been exploited by the far right. An unsavoury character showed up in the town last week from Dublin. He is known nationally for his activities in the far right realm. It is unforgivable. I was on "Drivetime" radio two weeks ago, again with no information to hand. Sarah McInerney and John Cooke confirmed to me in the course of the interview that this was happening. I am a colleague of the Minister in the Government. I have an elected mandate in Clare and I am unable to give people information. Stakeholder engagement is needed. The Minister needs to consult with people on the ground. He must speak with the six school principals who are already struggling with an enrolment crisis for September 2023 and have not heard a squeak from the Department. Communication is needed in order to make this a success. The people are welcome, but this can only be done successfully through engagement.
I am happy to speak on this issue. I wrote to the Minister three weeks ago to advise him that a number of constituents had contacted me around this proposal. I will provide some background. This ended up in The Clare Champion about three and a half or four weeks ago. It referred to Unit 153. People were not informed. There was a lack of information, as my constituency colleague said, and a vacuum was created. I will be blunt. It seems the situation has been mishandled. I recognise the changed landscape but I am specifically interested in the response. The Minister's refusal to engage has created apathy but also, as has been said, a vacuum has been created and we do not want that to be replicated in County Clare.
I reiterate the call in my letter for the Minister to hold a public meeting in Shannon, engage with the community and hear the concerns and issues they have.
I thank the Deputies. As I said in an earlier reply, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has put in place a statutory instrument which allows for the conversion of office and other buildings to international protection accommodation, recognising the particularly difficult challenges we face with accommodating Ukrainian and international protection applicants right now. That is being applied in this situation, and this is why there is a change of use of that building.
This is not like other situations where my Department is procuring accommodation directly. Rather, we are working with another State agency, namely, the Office of Public Works, OPW. There are a number of commercial elements to its engagement with our contractors. There is nothing more infuriating for any Deputy than being told commercial concerns bar the answer to a question. I know that is frustrating. It is frustrating for me in terms of being able to get accurate information out to people.
However, significant work is going on with this building and we need to allow that work to take place before we understand its potential for occupancy in terms of whether it will be a building for family groups. As such, that will have knock-on impact on the need for schools in the area. As I said earlier, we now have processes to examine where new accommodation is coming online to make sure we can link children living in that accommodation to schools, either locally or, if there is pressure on local schools, schools within a wider area. That is the regional education and language teams, REALT, system the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, has set up. The system was initially for Ukrainians and now includes international protection applicants.
I have heard what the Deputies have said. I recognise there has been an information vacuum which has created challenges for Deputies in ensuring the welcome they both spoke of which the people of Shannon will give to those fleeing war is fully maintained and there is no exploitation by malicious actors.
There is a steady flow of information here today, but this was information the Minister could not give me three or four weeks ago. I and other politicians in the county have been left firefighting. We are trying to give accurate information to people who have genuine concerns. Beyond that, there is huge exploitation coming from the far right. The Minister needs to give us information. I cannot fathom why he could not give me, as a colleague in government, information in the House three weeks ago, yet his office was able to brief RTÉ's "Drivetime". That is not the way things should work in a coalition Government.
I want to reference the town of Lisdoonvarna, County Clare. This time last year it had a population of 400 people and now has a population of close to 1,500, an almost fourfold increase in population. It has welcomed every single Ukrainian and international protection refugee. The people there have done an incredible job welcoming refugees, but there are no longer boots on the ground. At one point, a class was being taught in a cloakroom. There is no GP care. There is a lack of everything and no co-ordination. We need the Minister and his officials to be on the ground. They were everywhere last March. They marched up and down the street with ambassadors. There were photo opportunities and a fanfare. There is now nothing. The town is pleading for support and help from Government. The town will play its part but it wants the Government to step up as well.
The reason I have called for a public meeting is because local residents have relayed legitimate concerns regarding whether the Department has consulted local services such as the Shannon health centre and schools in the area to ensure they will be adequately equipped to deal with extra capacity. I would also like information on the financials and particulars of the unit I have mentioned. The Minister said it is being looked at and information will be with his Department shortly. He might send that information to me.
Will the Minister confirm to the House how much the proposed refit of the unit will cost? Will he please inform us how he was able to rezone the unit, despite the fact it is in the Shannon Free Zone, which is purely an industrial and commercial zone, by definition? How will it be possible to bring the unit up to code in respect of basic sanitation, habitation standards and fire and safety regulations? I would also like clarity around the numbers of people who may take up residence there.
I want to again emphasise the urgent necessity to tackle this issue, which has been genuinely voiced by many inside and outside the House, notwithstanding the less than genuine people who are now active in our society and acting in a seditious way to create failure and the maximum possible opposition to and hatred of people coming into our country. They have to come into our country and we have an obligation to welcome, greet and include them in our society. We cannot do that unless we have the information to do so and a special effort is made within the shortest possible time to ensure that information is good and will stand up in order that we do not have to make inquiries at a later date. We should have the information straight off.
In response to Deputy Wynne's question, a statutory instrument has been put in place that creates a planning exemption for the use of facilities for international protection or Ukrainian accommodation. There are two separate planning exemptions, and that has been applied in this situation. It allows a change of use to take place in the building in Shannon. Other elements of the building code, such as fire certification and building management controls, continue to apply. A building such as this cannot be used until appropriately certified. I do not have the financial details for the Deputy. They are coming, and as soon as I am in a position to do so, I will make them available to Deputies. That is why I was not able to give more information to Deputy Crowe earlier. I accept what he said about that limiting his ability and that of other Deputies to get the correct information out.
There is a challenge, in particular when these projects are undertaken across a number of Departments, in that there can be more red tape and barriers to a free flow of information than when things are done through my Department alone. I am appreciative when we do joint projects. I am appreciative of the support given by the OPW and the Department of Defence in bringing forward accommodation. It is indicative of the very real pressure we are under and the fact that people are being left without accommodation, as Deputy Smith spoke to earlier, that we have had to move in this very rapid fashion in a number of areas.
The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, are bringing forward a community recognition fund to recognise those parts of the country that have taken on significant numbers of refugees. County Clare has taken in a number of Ukrainian and international protection applicants. I understand about €2.9 million of the fund will be allocated to Clare to support projects that will be a long-term recognition of the huge efforts the county has made to address and support the needs of people arriving there.
