The Ombudsman for Children today laid before the Dáil a special report on the safety and welfare of children in direct provision. This is the first time in their 20-year history that they have taken this action, which really illustrates the seriousness of these issues and of their concerns. They want this report to spur Government on to meet the commitments made in 2021. One of those commitments was in respect of a robust quality assurance mechanism for oversight in these centres. HIQA unfortunately only has oversight in respect of permanent centres whereas the majority of children are housed in emergency accommodation. Indeed there is one opening in my constituency of Wicklow which will house 950 Ukrainian refugees shortly. We are really at risk of repeating the dark mistakes of our past by outsourcing fundamental public services and not protecting our most vulnerable. Why will the Government not require HIQA to oversee these emergency accommodation centres?

I have not read the ombudsman's report yet but I will. My initial observation is that we need balance and perspective again here. When over 100,000 people come into the country in one year, we are not going to get a response that meets with conditions of normal times. A war has been waged on Ukraine. We have facilitated the arrival into the country of 73,000 Ukrainians. Sorry, we have housed 73,000. We did not have 73,000 houses.

The ombudsman's report is in relation to the 24 commitments.

We have responded to a lot of those commitments. I am just making a general point. There seems to be a view abroad that we can do everything at once. We did the right thing and Europe did the right thing to facilitate fleeing Ukrainians coming from war. We did the right thing. There are limitations to how well one can do it in such a short space of time. I will read the report. The Department has responded to a lot of the issues, I am informed.