It is stated in media reports this morning that almost 1,000 asylum seekers are living in tents on our streets. This is at a time when the Department that is supposed to be looking after asylum seekers is rejecting properties around the country that have gone through the five stages to qualify. Alongside that, you have the 13,000 homeless. Is it not that time that the Taoiseach would look at these figures and use the properties that have been rejected, thereby allowing those who have invested in those properties to receive some of the supports that they expected in the beginning from the State? It appears to me that there is no joined-up thinking here, that the policy on asylum seekers is really a shambles, and that properties remain refurbished but vacant.

It is the case that there are almost 1,000 asylum seekers who have sought accommodation by the State and have not received it. We are just no longer in a position to provide State accommodation to every asylum seeker that comes into the country. We need to make sure people know that. If they are leaving another safe country where they have accommodation, they should know that it is inadvisable to come to Ireland, at least until we are in a much better space around accommodation. It is not the case that they are all in tents or on the streets. Many have found accommodation, often with people they know from back home or through the various networks that people have.

With regard to those properties, I am not familiar with them. There may be a good reason; there might not be. If there are two or three the Deputy is particularly aware of, he might give the information and some details on them and I will get my people to follow it up to see if there is a good reason. Sometimes there is a good reason that the owner might not tell you but that might not be the case, so let us look into it.