The fourth question is from the Rural Independent Group and Deputy Mattie McGrath.

Yesterday, I called for a debate to be held in this House on the impact of inward immigration. The Minister with responsibility for immigration, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, responded to say that we are currently providing accommodation to 64,000 people, many of whom are from Ukraine. He went on to list the 17,000 people who have come to our shores are fleeing from wars elsewhere. He listed in his response wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, from where people have come seeking international protection.

The Minister failed to mention Georgia where 2,300 applicants have come in the first ten months of this year, representing a tenfold increase on 2021 figures. He failed to mention Algeria, which has seen the numbers of asylum seekers increase from less than 100 in 2021 to a staggering 1,318 for the ten months of 2022, an increase of more than 1000%. There are similar figures from Somalia, Nigeria and Albania. I am not sure if the Minister did not know the figures or if he was being deliberately misleading in his response. The Taoiseach dodged the question and he passed it to the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, so I am asking the Taoiseach the question today.

The International Protection Office, IPO, has witnessed a staggering 516% increase in new arrivals seeking asylum excluding those coming from Ukraine. That is an important figure, as these are not from Ukraine. No country can sustain such levels, particularly when we are in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis, a massive health capacity crisis, which we have just spoken about, and a savage cost-of-living crisis.

Shockingly, 3,254 persons arrived in this State undocumented in the first eight months of this year. This is from a reply I received from the Minister for Justice who admitted that these passengers had presented documentation at their point of departure but were no longer in possession of such documentation when they reached immigration services in Dublin Airport. That is a scandalous situation, and they are the figures from the Department of Justice. Every sovereign nation has a right to protect its borders and every State has not only a right but a duty and obligation to balance the needs of its citizens and its communities with the needs of those who are seeking international protection. A distinguished medical consultant in Tipperary, Dr. Mary Ryan, has expressed huge concerns about our immigration policy and the impact that it is having on the already overstretched and disastrous health service, and she has called for a pause. She is a well-recognised woman.

I am once again asking the Taoiseach if we can have an urgent debate in the House on this important matter or if a special committee can be established urgently to examine the impact the ongoing numbers of migrants into this country is having on our already overstretched and failing State services.

I thank the Deputy.

As I said, it is vital that we have a debate on this. The public is asking for it and wants it.

The Deputy’s time is up.

There seems to be a "no mention" policy in force in the House and elsewhere.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The first point I make is that we are in unprecedented times and the world is not in a good place. There is a terrible, immoral and illegal war being waged on the people of Ukraine by President Putin and by Russia, which is causing untold killing and untold damage to energy infrastructure. It has weaponised food and migration and it is causing huge uncertainty across the Continent of Europe and across the world in terms of economic development. The most fundamental outcome of the war is that so many young people are losing their lives on the front. It is quite shocking in the modern era that we are witnessing a humanitarian disaster on a scale that has not been seen since the Second World War on the Continent of Europe.

Since last October, the Russians have been targeting critical energy infrastructure and water facilities. Millions of homes in Ukraine are experiencing power outages. Supply of electricity to Moldova has been affected. That is the context in which we are having this discussion. It is terrible and the result has been millions and millions of Ukrainians have left their country. Ireland has welcomed and taken in Ukrainians, along with other European members states as part of the European temporary protection directive. We have directly housed 47,000 people who are fleeing the brutal war but in the State as a whole in private accommodation, and so on, about 65,000 refugees from Ukraine and from the rest of the world have been housed directly by the State. That includes international protection. That is not easy. It is unprecedented and it is challenging. We have never before had to deal with numbers of that kind or in that volume. On the Ukrainian situation, the vast majority of people have been mothers and children. Many communities across the country and many people have opened up and welcomed Ukrainians in, given the circumstances from which they are fleeing; they are leaving family behind.

It certainly creates huge pressures on our services. In my view, however, in a wartime situation like this, there is no choice here. We have to work with other European countries in respect of this. The most effective thing would be if Putin called off this war and if he stopped it. At the moment, they are trying to freeze and starve people. It is quite shocking what is going on. It is a premeditated attack on people and the basic necessities of life. In my view, it constitutes a war crime.

On the issue of international protection, the numbers have gone up significantly-----

I thank the Taoiseach. The time is up.

I say to the Deputy that I have no issue with a debate in the House on this and I have no issue with a committee being formed, if that is the desire of the House, to get more into the details on the specific issues. Maybe that is something that can be worked out.

Any nation that fails to plan, plans to fail and we cannot possibly plan for the needs of our citizens with no limits or no controls on inward immigration. We therefore need a serious examination here. The Taoiseach spuriously waited until the end of his three minutes to mention the 17,000 people who did not come from Ukraine and the many who have not come from war-affected countries.

Migration both outward and inward has been a part of our nation’s history for generations and there is no denying that. There are many benefits to immigration and migration and we accept the desire of young people to get expertise and travel. Many have left our shores and have benefited from that. Many thousands of doctors and nurses have come to our shores at all levels in medicine. I was in St. Vincent’s University Hospital for six days last week and I got exceptional care in that public hospital. It was delivered by many new people from India and from all over. I want to say that they are playing a valuable role. However, we should take off the blindfold. The Taoiseach is not blindfolded and he knows better than anyone about what is coming in. It is downright unacceptable and he will not deal with it. He is part of it and he is obsessed with the word “Ukraine”. He is obsessed with it. I accept that we have to take in people from Ukraine. I am asking about the 2,300 people who came into Dublin Airport and who had no documentation. Surely, we are not a free-for-fall, or freeloaders completely and that they are not sent back. We cannot go anywhere without our passports. It is as simple as that and that is the way that it should be. We have to have respect for our people and for our communities. The Taoiseach is denying that. It is causing strife and it will cause more strife and angst if we do not deal with it.

I assure the Deputy that I am not obsessed with anything, but there is a reality of a war that is on our doorsteps. There are 17,518 people being accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, accommodation. That number has increased. The average before Covid-19 in 2019 was approximately 3,500. That was the expected annual average that had been projected by earlier reports. It has increased significantly-----

516%-----

Please.

-----and every country has its systems. We work within the broad European system. We are a country that believes in a multilateral, rules-based system. When people arrive under international protection they apply for asylum. That is then adjudicated upon. A great deal of resources have been allocated to speed up the arbitration and decision-making of that.

If people's applications are refused, they can be deported.

No paperwork.