Ms Tracy Dube is a Zimbabwean international living in the Clondalkin Towers direct provision centre. She works as a part-time healthcare assistant in a nursing home and is studying social care full-time in Technological University Dublin, TUD. She received her leave to remain in October 2021 and was approved for homeless housing assistance payment, HAP, in October of last year. Since then, she has been desperately trying to find private rental accommodation and is actively using the place finder service. In March, she received a letter from the international protection accommodation services, IPAS, saying that if she had not moved out by June, she would be moved to County Clare. On Friday, a taxi arrived by IPAS to move her against her will from Dublin to County Clare, which would have had an enormous impact, resulting in her losing her job and her place in college. There is no merit to this policy. IPAS gains nothing from it. The big losers will be working people like Tracy. I urge the Taoiseach to explore and give a commitment to end this practice and withdraw the threat to displace this woman from her home, work and college in Dublin to a place she knows nothing about.

I do not want to comment on the individual case because I do not know all the information. However, we have a serious issue because thousands of people living in direct provision who have status are working and not paying any rent. That is not a tenable situation because we need those spaces for people who are new applicants for international protection. Single people, in particular, have been asked to find alternative accommodation and in almost all cases, they have. In a few cases, we have had to provide alternative accommodation for them in another location and that has been done.