I was very struck by a photograph taken by Niall Carson carried in the Irish edition of the Daily Mail today. It shows several asylum seekers leaving Magowna House and walking along a small country road. The caption says they are heading back to Dublin. The men are not lumbered down with many heavy bags. They each have small backpacks and a plastic bag. Their only possessions are crammed into those small bags. It is unclear how they intend to get back to Dublin and it is also unclear where they will stay once they get there. Given they have now left international protection accommodation services, IPAS, accommodation, it is likely they will be forced to sleep rough on the streets.

These people have come to this country with nothing and we are failing them. It did not have to be like this. The manager of Magowna House knew for three months that asylum seekers would be housed there, but nobody else was told. The local community was not told. Local politicians were not told. Not even the Clare Immigrant Support Centre, which has been providing outreach services for refugees for more than 30 years, was told. The Government is presiding over an increasingly chaotic response to this crisis. There are real fears that the shameful and violent scenes we saw in Dublin at the weekend will be repeated. We all know there has been an abject failure to provide emergency accommodation. Two years into this crisis, there is still no strategy to engage with communities housing refugees.

The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, was appointed to his portfolio with responsibility for integration to help with this work. He put together proposals in January 2023 to recruit a team to help with community engagement. It is reported in the Irish Examiner today, however, that those plans stalled when they were sent to the Department of the Taoiseach. Five months later, that Department is still exploring alternative models of engagement. We still have no communications strategy. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, was appointed to the integration portfolio to help with this effort, but how can he when his plans are put on hold?

It appears the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, is on his own. At least this is the view of the Green Party. Senator Garvey of the Green Party said on "Morning Ireland" today that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been "thrown under a bus". There are also reports of increasing tensions between the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Senator Garvey implored people not to play politics with this issue. It appears, though, that the only people playing politics are sitting at the Cabinet table.

Does the Minister, Deputy Harris, agree that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been thrown under the bus and left to deal with this issue alone? When will the Government publish its communications strategy for local communities housing refugees?

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising an important issue and one I think is on the minds of people right across this country this week. We had an opportunity in the House yesterday to reflect on the horrific scenes in Dublin and the Deputy is rightly raising the issue in County Clare now.

First, I wish to be clear that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is leading an incredible effort to address the largest humanitarian crisis any of us have probably lived through. We are all working tirelessly to support him. There are very concrete examples of this beyond words. Taking my Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, this means providing student accommodation during the summer months to the national months. If we take the Department of Justice, it means identifying and providing the Thornton Hall site. Turning to the Department of Defence, it means providing several sites, including Kilbride Camp in my constituency or Columb Barracks in Mullingar. It means taking account of the work of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, in respect of the Office of Public Works, OPW, and the roll-out of rapid-build housing, with the first units due to come on stream-----

It is-----

Is the Deputy in favour of it or against it?

We are in favour of it, but the Government should have delivered it six months ago when it was supposed to-----

Deputy Gould, please.

As for calling it rapid-build housing, let us face it-----

I ask the Deputy to rein in his party's councillor in Limerick.

I ask the Minister of State to rein in his party's councillors in Cork, if he knows what he is talking about.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, please not to provoke the Deputy.

I was not provoking him.

It does not take much to do so.

I am sorry-----

Take it easy now.

Some issues are more important than shouting at each other across the Chamber. This is a very serious issue. I assure Deputy Cairns that the entire Government and the Cabinet committee chaired by the Taoiseach are co-ordinating the effort concerning this issue. For the information of the House, I confirm that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, now intends to open 350 additional beds this week. This will make a significant difference. A huge amount of work has been undertaken to get to this point. I acknowledge this aspect.

The Deputy also asked about community engagement. My understanding is that the tender for this has now gone out and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, is leading this effort. Regarding community engagement as well, it is important that we also provide financial assistance for communities that have opened their hearts, homes and facilities to help with this humanitarian effort. This week, the Government will announce the allocation of a €50 million fund that will see every county receive a level of funding.

If the Deputy does not mind me saying so respectfully as well, I think there needs to be a degree of fairness in respect of the commentary concerning this matter. Ireland's response has not been perfect. I am not sure that any country's has been. We have, however, achieved an awful lot together as a country and the Government has done an awful lot in a short time. Just this morning, I was looking at the figures from before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and I think we saw 4,781 people come to Ireland and seek protection. We have seen more than 100,000 people come here in the course of the last year or thereabouts. This is a huge challenge and we must be honest, including the Government and everybody else. People are entitled to come here and to seek protection, but we must also be very honest about the accommodation challenges we face. We are working not on a daily basis but on an hourly basis to try to come up with solutions in this regard. The conversation at Cabinet, not that we discuss Cabinet matters in detail here, but for clarity, yesterday was about what we can do immediately, right now, to help with the acute situation regarding tents and then, moving beyond this, about how we can progress and turbocharge the progression at several of the sites identified for rapid-build housing, pods and other approaches.

Modular housing was supposed to come on stream last November. Not a single unit has been delivered. Is this rapid in the opinion of the Minister?

Yes.

Accommodation services are in crisis, but when Baggot Street hospital was proposed as an accommodation centre, we were told it would take nine months to do a feasibility study. Does taking nine months to do a feasibility study scream urgency and emergency to the Minister? Nobody is underestimating the task that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has. This is why we are asking if other Cabinet Ministers are pulling their weight. He and his staff seem to be very much alone in this endeavour. He has had to repeatedly implore Cabinet colleagues to locate accommodation. On one occasion, a single Department, the Department of Defence, came back with one location, and now the feasibility study is being launched. His Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, cannot even get the Taoiseach to sign off on a communications strategy for local communities.

Who is in charge here? The Minister said the Cabinet is doing everything it can. The Taoiseach said the same but there is absolutely no evidence of that. It seems the Cabinet is at war and there is a complete lack of a co-ordinated approach. When will it sign off on the proposal for community engagement?

That will be a matter for the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. He is working very intensively on this.

He has been waiting five months to hear back from the Taoiseach about whether it can be approved.

The Deputy does not need to speak for the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien; he can speak for himself. He is already working very hard on making a real difference in regard to this. Deputy Cairns implored the Government not to play politics with this. I respectfully suggest the same.

That is not fair.

If the Deputy cannot take it, do not-----

Lads, I do not need any help.

It is not fair to suggest that moving from 4,700 people seeking protection in our country to 100,000 people is a seamless transition. That is not fair. I am aware of the questions I was asked. I was asked questions in regard to the community engagement plan. I said it has gone to tender in the past two weeks. I was asked questions about how we will further support communities. I outlined that we will announce a €50 million allocation to communities this week. I am absolutely assuring the Deputy, and the facts bear that out, that every Department has contributed to the national effort. Every person in Ireland, in many ways, is contributing too. We are making real progress. We have to be honest with people. There is not one singular thing we can do. This requires hourly work across Government and that is in place.