Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I call Deputy McDonald.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I think everyone was expecting a prayer. They have all become very holy, a Cheann Comhairle.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We can do one, if the Deputy wants.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Whatever you think yourself.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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We might need a prayer.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I would rather not.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Entire rosaries and novenas would probably be more in our line.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Maybe a Hail Mary.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Absolutely. That would be nice.

Yesterday, I raised with the Taoiseach the very shocking case of Tori Towey. Tori is, as he knows, a 28-year old young woman from Roscommon. She is living and working in Dubai as an airline attendant, and she married last March. Since then, Tori has been subjected to sustained and brutal domestic violence and abuse. When she went to the authorities to seek help, instead of being protected, she was sent home with her husband. He then destroyed her passport so she could not travel and she could not work. She could not come back to Ireland. Tori was, in effect, held captive by her abuser. Just over two weeks ago, she endured a particularly vicious beating. Her husband repeatedly slammed doors on her arms, trying to break her limbs, and tried to strangle her. She fled upstairs in a desperate attempt to escape the violence and, in desperation, tried to take her own life. When Tori came to, she was surrounded by paramedics, but instead of being taken to a hospital, she was taken to a police station. There, she was charged with attempted suicide and alcohol abuse. Tori was placed in a cell with 50 other women. She was not told what she was charged with. She was not given any information at all. Tori was released on bail but her passport was blocked. She is banned from leaving the state. She is currently living in accommodation with her mother, Caroline, who travelled to Dubai to support her. All of this happened on 28 June, nearly two weeks ago.

Tori's appalling situation came to my attention yesterday and to that of my colleague Deputy Claire Kerrane. We have raised this with the Taoiseach in the expectation that the Government will move with urgency to end this nightmare. I spoke with Tori and her mother again this morning. I know the Taoiseach has been speaking to them also. He is aware that they feel isolated and vulnerable. They told me that they feel like they are being held hostage. They are scared. The coming hours are crucial because once the Dubai court process kicks in, it will become harder to get Tori back home to Ireland quickly. Tori wants to come home. The Government must do absolutely everything to get her home. This is an Irish woman, an Irish citizen, and the message must go out loudly and clearly that we will not allow any Irish citizen to be treated in this way by anybody and that we will confront this medieval, grotesque treatment of women. Women are not chattel; we do not belong to men. Men do not own us. Tori Towey does not belong to her husband. She does not belong to Dubai. She belongs at home in Ireland. We will not rest until she is at home.

Tá Tori Towey i lár an tromluí is measa a bheadh ag gach bean. Caithfidh an Rialtas gach rud is féidir leis a dhéanamh chun í a thabhairt ar ais abhaile go hÉireann. When I raised this case with the Taoiseach yesterday and spoke to him subsequently, he said - and we agreed - that he would do everything he could to intervene to help Tori. Can he set out for us what steps he and the Government have taken in the past 24 hours to get Tori Towey home? The Dubai authorities must drop the charges against her, remove the travel ban, and allow this woman to travel home.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I agree with every word Deputy McDonald said on this issue. I thank her and Deputy Kerrane for engaging with me on this matter, along with Deputy Feighan. This is a really distressing case. It is important that everybody around the world, including in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, know that we are speaking with one voice in this House on this situation.

An Irish woman - an Irish citizen - has been the victim of horrific male violence. She has been the victim of the most brutal, horrific attack one can imagine. After enduring that horrific, brutal attack, Tori Towey did not wake up in a hospital, being supported, cared for and loved, she woke up in a police station. We want Tori Towey back in this country. We want her back home in Roscommon. That is what she wants as well. It is absolutely my position, as Taoiseach, and that of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs – as I know it is Deputy McDonald's position, and that of everybody in this House – that this is what must now happen, as a matter of urgency.

As Deputy McDonald stated, I did speak directly to Tori this morning, and to her mother, Caroline, who has flown out to be with her daughter at this extraordinarily distressing time. I told them that this is a big priority issue for me and the Government and that I am working on it right now with my officials and with the Tánaiste and his officials. Since we spoke on this matter yesterday, I have also spoken to our ambassador in the area. I acknowledge that the embassy and the ambassador are working extraordinarily hard on this matter. I am very confident of that from a number of engagements I have had with the ambassador and her team over the course of the past 24 hours. My understanding is that the embassy is in ongoing contact with Ms Towey. I checked that this morning. That is essential. It is the least an Irish citizen can expect. The ambassador has been in frequent and intense contact with the ministry for foreign affairs there and with the under secretary. I do not want to say too much more on the record of this House, because I do not want to say anything that cuts across the very intense effort that is under way, other than to assure Deputy McDonald, Tori and her mother, Caroline, and, most importantly, the people of this country that no effort will be spared by us, by Ireland, to make progress on this matter and to get Tori Towey home. She does not need to come home after a court case because she is not a criminal. She is a victim of gender-based violence. We expect her, as an Irish citizen, to be able to return here to Ireland without delay. That is what I, the Tánaiste and the ambassador will be working on throughout the day.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Taoiseach for that update. Let me just say this: Tori is not, as the Taoiseach says, a criminal. She is, in fact, a victim. Our first concern is to get Tori home safely, and that must happen immediately. These charges must be dropped and Tori and her mother Caroline must be allowed to travel home freely and unimpeded to Ireland and to Roscommon. That is the call from this Chamber today. I hope the authorities and the royalty in Dubai are listening very carefully to this message. This is not acceptable. It is not acceptable on any level. It is not acceptable for any woman. We are not objects. We are not chattel. We are not the possession of anybody. Our human rights matter and our safety matters. The safety of every Irish woman and every Irish citizen matters to us. We will not tolerate this situation. The Taoiseach agrees with me on that. I am glad that the contact with the embassy is so strong. That needs to continue. Every support, including a legal representative to act as an interlocutor with the authorities, needs to be firmed up for Tori. That is the bottom line.

Perhaps the ambassador from Dubai watches Oireachtas TV or RTÉ. There is no ambiguity in the point. We want Tori home and we want the charges dropped today. We want herself and Caroline to make their way back. The wider issue regarding the treatment of women and the abuse of our human rights in jurisdictions such as this also needs to be on our diplomatic agenda very firmly.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy McDonald. Absolutely, step one is to get Tori and her mother, who is out there actively supporting her at this very distressing time, home. For this to happen, the travel ban needs to be lifted. It is the current block in terms of Tori coming home. The immediate request and demand of Ireland is that this happens. With regard to the issue of legal representation, I am advised that free legal aid will be made available but I share Deputy McDonald's view that it should not arise because Tori is not a criminal. She needs to get home. She has been a victim of gender-based violence. The free legal aid is there but it should not arise, in my view.

We have had a lot of worthy and important discussion in the House. Indeed, a debate has just concluded in the past few minutes on the issue of a zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. We take this approach to Irish citizens who live here and we expect it to be afforded to all Irish citizens across the world. In addition, we also expect to be a country that will continue to speak up, speak out and advocate for a zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence for any woman anywhere in the world. The most important thing right now in the Tori Towey case is to get her home, get her back to Ireland and get the travel ban lifted. I will continue to engage with Deputy McDonald and keep the House informed.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I notice that in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery there is a very great friend of Ireland, the right honourable Trevor Mallard, who is New Zealand's ambassador to this country. I ask Members to give him a big warm welcome.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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This is probably the last interaction the Taoiseach and I will have for a while as I have got a new job.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Where are you working?

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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Bonjour. When the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance do not remember the 1990 World Cup, you realise you are a total aul' fella and need to get out.

The important point I want to make today, in what is probably the last interaction I will have with the Taoiseach for a while, is on an issue I have raised a number of times in recent years. It is the reason I got involved in politics in the first place. It is about disadvantaged education, DEIS schools and DEIS plus. DEIS plus is a proposal for three areas in Dublin - Tallaght, Ballymun and Dublin 17 - to replicate what has been happening in Dublin 1, which is a multidisciplinary approach to trauma-based supports for the most acutely disadvantaged schools.

When I raise this with the Minister for Education, she always gives me a positive response but she says there is an OECD review in the second quarter of 2024 of the entirety of the DEIS system. That is fine and we have now come through that period. The difference between the job of the Taoiseach and our job is that a Taoiseach who cares passionately about something can really make it happen very quickly. The problem with being a Member of the Opposition is that if we care passionately about something, we have to cajole, lobby, meet, try to amend legislation and try to plead with Ministers. The great thing about the Taoiseach's position is that if he decided that DEIS plus needed to happen, it could happen and we would not need to wait for budgetary decisions or long discussions about it. If he were passionate about it, it could happen.

We are talking about 100 schools. We are speaking about the most profoundly disadvantaged children who are trying to battle through a suite of trauma and intergenerational disadvantage. I know the Taoiseach knows that education is the one chance that children have to break out of poverty. I understand this and the Taoiseach understands this. In the case of the schools identified by the INTO in the three areas, principals have been engaging with the Department. This has been positive and we are almost there. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment? We always ask for the Government to meet the principals but I think we have gone beyond that. I ask for an acknowledgement. We cannot just give one quarter of the schools in the country DEIS status, as we have done, and think it makes a difference to the most profoundly disadvantaged children. When we speak about crime, drugs, inequality in society and all of these issues, fundamentally a huge amount of this comes back to the chances that children have in their classrooms at the early stage. This new scheme would involve 100 schools. It has already worked in Dublin 1. Can we make it happen in the most profoundly disadvantaged schools throughout the country? These are 100 schools and the programme is DEIS plus.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On what is probably our last exchange, I wish Deputy Ó Ríordáin well. His election to the European Parliament is a major milestone for him and his party. I genuinely wish him well as he continues to represent Dublin and Ireland, albeit in a different capacity. I say to all those elected to the European Parliament that everybody in the House is rooting for them. When they go over to a major Parliament of course from time to time people wear their party jerseys but the Irish jersey is required in terms of working together on key issues. I have always enjoyed exchanges with Deputy Ó Ríordáin on a variety of issues. I have tried to work collaboratively with him on an issue I know he is passionate about, which is adult literacy.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin very much outlined the role of the Government and the role of the Opposition. It is not an unfair way of outlining it. There is another way. The odd time in this House, the Government and the Opposition can work together on issues and try to make progress. Educational disadvantage is one such area. The DEIS programme has been transformative, as Deputy Ó Ríordáin has rightly said. I was looking into this earlier. The programme now supports 240,000 students in Ireland, which is one in four students. Approximately 30% of schools are now supported by the programme. It has a budget of €180 million. It is making a real impact. As Deputy Ó Ríordáin knows, we have expanded DEIS to other schools as a recognition of its success. We want to see other iterations in taking steps forward on DEIS. Let me say as Head of the Government that this is the direction of travel we want to take.

Before getting directly into DEIS plus, I want to mention that we recently took a significant step which I think Deputy Ó Ríordáin will support. Under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, we have effectively introduced DEIS for preschool. I know I am speaking to the converted on this but if we believe in tackling educational disadvantage, the earlier we tackle it the better. The Equal Start programme, which effectively is DEIS for preschool, will see 700 services throughout the country benefit from extra staff and extra funding from this September. In real terms this will mean approximately 32,000 children, some of them disadvantaged children, getting the benefit of DEIS and an equal start at preschool. This is the most immediate thing. We do not need to wait for the budget and it will kick off in September.

I am conscious that Deputy Ó Ríordáin has heard warm words about DEIS plus previously, but I think there is real merit in it. As we continue to invest in education, the issues of universality and targeting arise. We are doing well on universality - we need to continue to do more - but we need to start targeting specific interventions. DEIS plus very much recognises this. The Minister is very aware of Deputy Ó Ríordáin's proposal. She has met many principals on it. The answer is that the OECD review is being completed at present. It is also being complemented by a programme of work by the Department of Education to develop further policy and to work on what is the next iteration for DEIS. The good news is that there is a timeframe for this. We expect to have the report from the OECD team this summer. We should be in a position to make policy decisions on what is next for educational disadvantage and DEIS in time for the budget in October.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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Research has shown that a three-year-old from a middle-class advantaged background will have 1,200 words in their vocabulary, while a three-year-old from a disadvantaged background will have 400 words in their vocabulary. Even by the time children are three years old, there is a massive gap in their capability to reach their full potential. This is before we bring in issues such as addiction, housing and intergenerational trauma. We do not have time to waste because we are losing the potential of these incredible children. I appreciate what the Taoiseach is saying but if we were to make these interventions, it would be transformative for these lives. When I raise this, people often say there are children in non-DEIS schools who are disadvantaged. I accept all of this but there is a level of profound problems in some of these schools across the country. One principal told me the school has had to change its route to swimming every week because there is a local feud and there may be a stray bullet that kills a child.

These are the decisions principals have to make that many people in Ireland simply do not comprehend. I ask the Government to give this proposal on the investment that could be made for the potential of these children the respect it deserves and make it happen because we have money. Then we will see in ten or 20 years the benefit that will accrue from this investment at this time.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin. He has made me feel even stronger about the point I made in my first response about the importance of the Equal start programme. I was not aware of the statistics on three-year-olds, but they are stark. I am pleased that the Equal Start programme, which is like DEIS for pre-school, will begin this September with 32,000 of the youngest children benefiting for the first time from positive discrimination, if you like, in funding and staffing allocations. We are determined to do more on DEIS and educational disadvantage. The pathway we will follow to do that is the conclusion of the OECD research, in addition to the work the Minister, Deputy Foley, and her Department are doing at the moment. They recently concluded a consultation with approximately 200 principals of post-primary and primary schools. That, in addition to the OECD work over the summer months, will feed into the opportunity to develop the next steps on the DEIS journey.

I have a funny feeling we will hear from the Deputy again on this matter, whether he is in Dublin or Brussels, and we look forward to continuing to engage.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I add my voice to the condemnation of the outrageous treatment of the events that occurred for Tori Towey and call on the UAE Government to immediately drop the charges and allow her to come home.

This is the last week the Dáil is sitting before the summer recess and the last opportunity I will have to ask a question during Leaders' Questions. For six weeks now, we and many others in the Opposition have been calling on the Government for a discussion of the Housing Commission report, which was published in May and is absolutely damning with respect to the Government's failure to address the housing and homelessness crisis. We got a commitment that the Government would do so, but it has not. Was the reason the Government does not want to discuss the Housing Commission report revealed in the budget parameters that were announced yesterday in the summer economic statement? It is absolutely clear that the Housing Commission's call to effectively double the output of housing and dramatically increase the delivery of social and affordable housing to address the housing crisis is not provided for in the summer economic statement.

Last year, the Government allocated €5 billion to Housing for All to deliver 33,000 houses, including approximately 16,000 social and affordable houses. That €5 billion was to deliver on targets that the Housing Commission says are half of what is needed. It states that we have a housing deficit of 250,000 properties, that we need to build 60,000 houses a year and that we must dramatically increase the proportion of social and affordable housing. A basic calculation shows that we would need an additional €5 billion to do that, or close to that figure. However, the additional expenditure on capital investment that the Government announced yesterday is €1.4 billion and presumably that is not just for housing. We need investment in schools, water infrastructure, and special needs and disability services. What was announced yesterday, which the Minister said he will stick tightly to in the budget, is a fraction of what is necessary to deliver the increase in housing output necessary to address a housing crisis that has more than 14,000 people, including 4,000 children, in emergency accommodation; that has approximately 170,000 people on housing waiting lists; and that has completely locked tens of thousands of ordinary people - young people and working people - out of a housing market that is out of control. What does the Taoiseach say to that? Will he and the Government actually take seriously the scale of the housing emergency or are they just gaslighting people? The money the Government has allocated in the budget to deal with this crisis-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you Deputy, you are over time.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----is a fraction of what the Housing Commission stated is necessary to address it.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This Government takes the housing crisis extremely seriously. It is the biggest societal challenge we face. It is an intergenerational challenge that causes significant anxiety across the country. The Deputy knows we take it seriously and he knows some of the figures he never mentions when he stands up to speak on this issue. That is his prerogative. We now live in a country where more than 300 homes are going to construction every working day. More than 500 people, including individuals and couples, buy their first home every week. Contrary to the assertion the Deputy made, we are seeing the largest number of social houses allocated in my lifetime. You have to go back to the 1970s to find a higher figure. The Deputy gives the impression with his narrative that none of this is happening. Commencements, completions and planning permissions are up. There are now real reasons to believe we can credibly lift the scale of ambition. I agree with the Deputy that we need to lift the scale of ambition with regard to the number of homes we wish to build in the course of the next five years. I say with respect that the Deputy is somewhat wrapping himself in the Housing Commission report even though I do not believe he agrees with all its recommendations. If he does, that would represent a significant policy shift on his part because it talks about the need to support small landlords and to have private development and private funding of development. I have not heard the Deputy advocate for either in this House.

Yesterday, the Government agreed the draft national planning framework. That, coupled with the ESRI research that was published last week, will enable us to set new housing targets this autumn. We absolutely look forward to debating how those housing targets will be delivered and exceeded with everyone in the House. Respectfully, when the Deputy referred to the figure of €5 billion he was being a little disingenuous because, as everyone knows, the summer economic statement only outlines spending from the Exchequer. It does not include any planned activity by the Land Development Agency, LDA, which we have already capitalised significantly. It does not provide any indication of funding for the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, or the funding available through the European Investment Bank. While it might be anathema to the Deputy, it also does not include the fact that private developers and builders will also build homes and that is okay too. It is not only the State that builds houses and it is not only the direct Exchequer that funds the building of houses. The Government has provided capital funding for housing in 2024, coupled with the LDA and the HFA, as the Deputy acknowledged, in fairness to him, of a record €5 billion, the highest ever in the history of the State.

The Ministers for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform; Finance; and housing, the three parties in government and I fully accept we need to do more. We will do so by working with the Oireachtas in the autumn when we set out the housing targets.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Taoiseach did not answer the question. Is there more house building? Yes. Is there a bit more social housing? Yes. However, the Housing Commission has said we need to double the Government's targets. I know damn well that the LDA and the HFA are not included in the €5 billion figure, but that total figure was meant to deliver 33,000 houses, including approximately 16,000 social and affordable ones. If we are to do what the Housing Commission has said, we have to double the housing delivered by all sources. Private developers will do what they will do - or not do, as the case may be - but we have to deliver social and affordable housing to address the needs of those in emergency accommodation and those who have been on housing waiting lists for decades and to address the problem of working people being unable to afford astronomical house prices. The Government has not provided the money that can do that, based even on its previous investment in Housing for All. The Government needs to double that investment, which is what we and others have been saying for years and has now been confirmed by the Housing Commission. I do not agree with everything it has said-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----but it is right about the level of housing delivery. Why will the Government not allocate the money? It cannot say it does not have the money. It has it in the budget surplus and the infrastructure funds-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Time is up, Deputy. Please.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----and it could impose a wealth tax, like the one the French people are asking for-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Time is up.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----after the recent French election with the Popular Front in France.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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That was a great result, was it not?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We did not need the Housing Commission to tell us we needed to increase housing targets.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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You did not do it.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Hang on a second. We are doing it but we do it in a clear, methodical, evidence-based way. I clearly announced before I became Taoiseach that we needed to build 250,000 more homes between 2025 and 2030. Many people scoffed at that - not people in this House, in fairness - and said it was not possible or credible. Now ESRI research, Housing Commission reports and the CIF indicate it is absolutely possible for all parts of Ireland - not just the public sector - to deliver 50,000 homes on average per year from 2025. I cannot speak for any other party but I think there is growing a political consensus that is where we need to get to.

I am very clear we will need more funding mechanisms to do that. We have a number of work streams under way under the remit of the Cabinet committee on housing to prepare for the publication of the new targets. We will be back here in the autumn with the benefit of public input, and I hope that of the Deputy, on the draft national planning framework, with the ESRI research, when the Minister for housing will outline how he intends to raise the targets in granular detail. It is not fair to suggest the summer economic statement portrays the full picture in terms of capital investment in housing.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is what the Government said.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It only includes direct Exchequer funding.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I raise the case of a young man which exemplifies much of what is not working in our asylum system. His name is Tayeb. He lives in Scariff, County Clare. The Taoiseach will know Scariff; he was there a few months ago to announce public expenditure and forget to invite public representatives from outside the Government parties. That can happen.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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You were there.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I was there. People in Scariff are hospitable and few would remind the Taoiseach of that. They are generally kind and forgiving people. Tayeb quite likes it there but there is no university in Scariff. He has been offered a place in UCD which he wants to take up. He wants to get on with his life. He applied for asylum on 5 January along with his parents. He made his way from Gaza to Egypt and from Egypt to Ireland. He has asked if he can transfer accommodation to Dublin so he can attend university, where he has been offered a place. He has been told "No". However, in the event he can finance private accommodation, they will keep his place in Scariff so he can go back on holidays. That indicates they are willing to spend money to accommodate him in Scariff where there is no university, but not in Dublin where there is. He wants to get on in life, contribute and work.

Six months after you apply for asylum, you have a right to work in Ireland. Six months is set out because it is accepted you should have an asylum claim processed in that time. His asylum claim has not been processed and will not be processed in that time because our times are painfully slow. We say the new migration pact will be a magic bullet but there is nothing preventing the Department from speeding up processing times already. However, it has not done so, as the Taoiseach well knows, having been a Minister in the Department.

He applied for a work permit but has not received a reply to that either. He is effectively a burden on the Irish State but he wants to work, go to college and get on with his life. So do the vast majority of people who come to Ireland but they are not being processed quickly.

While the Government at a macro level is keen to be seen to be doing the right thing around asylum and around Palestine, when it comes back to the individual it is utterly dysfunctional. It does not work. Why is it taking so long to process asylum claims? When Syrians came to Ireland, a specific scheme was set up so their applications could be expedited. For the very few Palestinians coming to Ireland, what is being done? It is all well and good to engage in international diplomacy about recognising a state but how about recognising the humanity of an applicant who has had family members die, who has come here from Palestine and who wants to get on with his life and contribute to the society in which he finds himself?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I enjoyed my visit to Scariff and meeting the Deputy there. I apologised for the Deputy not receiving a formal invite and I wish him well with his new-----

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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It was all the other public representatives who were not there.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy was looking out for the others. I thank him. I appreciated seeing him there and wish him well with his new role in the European Parliament.

The Deputy raised a number of elements and I will try to work through them. We need to be honest with people on accommodation. The Deputy rightly raised the situation of a young man doing his best to get educated and get to work. That is something everybody is instinctively supportive of. I also need to be truthful that we have about 31,000 people in emergency accommodation. We all know and the Deputy has highlighted in the House that there is huge pressure on the system when it comes to accommodation. We are not in a position currently to provide accommodation at a location of international protection applicants' choice. When the Deputy boils that down to an individual case, I can see how difficult it is because these are human beings, but that is the truth. As we move beyond the emergency system and try to build a sustainable migration system, which we are doing in real time, one would hope we would be in a different position in relation to that.

I will directly follow up the individual case. It is an example of the broader issue. The Deputy is right that an international protection applicant has a right to work here after six months. I meet many small businesses across the country which are looking for labour. People are not looking to be sitting here on welfare. Peter Burke knows well there are businesses which would be delighted to give people an opportunity to earn a few bob and help the local economy.

Once someone has waited at least five months from the application received date, they can lodge their application. I have been told that in February 2024 a new online system was brought in to try to have a shorter processing time for applications. The system is currently processing applications made in April, in a processing time of around ten weeks. I will get the Deputy more detail on that because that does not seem to be the experience. The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, tells me that when it comes to work permits, which I know is a slightly different system, roughly 20 days is the processing time.

More broadly in relation to international protection applicants, we are making some progress. I accept we are not where we want to be yet but we have doubled the number of staff in the international protection office. Despite only doubling the number of staff, they are trebling the number of decisions made. They are working extraordinarily hard. We have seen 11,052 people apply up to 5 July this year, compared to 5,625 last year. It is important to be truthful about this and the honest to God answer is we are trying to build a system for a much larger number of applications in real time. That requires not just extra staff, which will be forthcoming, and extra budget, which is forthcoming, but looking at using technology, operating more efficiently and effectively, doing online interviews and using facilities like CityWest and not just the international protection office. That work is under way.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I completely understand the State cannot accommodate people where they want to be accommodated. That is not my complaint; my complaint is he cannot work to earn the money to pay for accommodation in Dublin.

The Taoiseach says people can apply after five months and then it takes ten weeks but they have a right after six months so the Taoiseach is implicitly acknowledging the right to work is being denied. That right was gained in a Supreme Court case. It was fought tooth and nail by the Government at all stages but, ultimately, that case determined the right to work of asylum seekers after six months.

We are treating people like chattels and moving them around the State rather than making any meaningful attempt to integrate them. There are beneficiaries of temporary protection who have been moved out of Loop Head, an area of depopulation where they have been integrated and where people want them to stay. They are being moved because of compliance issues. I have been asking questions and finding it very difficult to get answers, as usual, as to what the compliance issues are and what is happening. Regardless, they are not the fault of people who are looking to integrate, who have children in school and who are being told that, because of compliance issues, their children cannot go to school next week or month but have to go to another part of the country and start the integration process all over again. If we are going to accept people, and we have an international duty to do so, we have to put systems in place to integrate them and not move them around the country like chattels.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the last point. Of course we have to put systems in place and built a sustainable migration system. I assure the Deputy a huge amount of work is under way daily to make that happen. We will have another Cabinet committee on migration tomorrow. The Minister for integration, the Minister for Justice and others are working intensively on this.

I am very proud of their work. I do not say this to be argumentative in what is possibly our last exchange but there is sometimes an inconsistency in the approach we take to this. This is not aimed directly at Deputy McNamara but when I go around the country or when I come into this House, people say to me that we cannot keep using hotels and taking public facilities out of use. Then, all of a sudden we have a significant reduction in the number of people from Ukraine in accommodation. We are spending a lot of money on hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, so we say that we will give some of the hotels back and put them back into public use. Then people say, and I understand this on a human level and see it in my own constituency, that they do not want us to move the people from their community. As the Taoiseach, I have to try to have an overview here. The reality is that we are trying to make sure we have a sustainable accommodation supply and do not have a situation-----

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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That is not what I asked, in fairness.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I do not want to personalise this to Ukraine but the Deputy is talking about people living in one area and having to move to another. That is often because we find there is a building that is half-used for which the taxpayer is paying. I cannot stand over that either. All of this is hard; none of it is easy but it all has to be done in a compassionate way. These are human beings with rights but it is just an indication of some of the challenges we face in trying to balance the various responsibilities.