Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)

There is one other piece of context worth noting and that is the war in Ukraine. Since February 2022, in addition to the work we had been doing to deal with the needs of international protection applicants, my Department has had to deal with the needs of up to 100,000 Ukrainians and a very significant increase in the number of international applications. This is just for context which I know the Deputy will understand.

At present, there are 32,000 people in the international protection system, of which I believe 5,300 have status. We have had real success in supporting people with status to move out of international protection accommodation in recent years. Approximately 700 people made that move in 2022 and a total of 2,100 made the move in 2023. To date, more than 4,000 people with status have moved out of the system this year. We have done this through targeted supports, such as working with the Peter McVerry Trust and other housing NGOs to make sure people with status and the same right to housing supports as you and I, are able to avail of them and are able to move and live independently within the community.

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