I acknowledge that today is United Nations World Refugee Day when we stand in solidarity with those fleeing war and persecution. It is all the more timely, then, to raise today the ongoing failure by the Government to provide accommodation for those who have come here seeking refuge. In recent weeks, I have repeatedly raised the plight of those international protection applicants left with no choice but to sleep in tents along the canal or in public parks and streets. These people have been left with no option but to do so, yet they are now being threatened with prosecution when they do sleep in tents along the canals. We are seeing the Government erect miles of security fencing and the closing off of public spaces in the absence, it seems, of any coherent plan to provide accommodation. When are we going to see accommodation being provided for those left without it and the removal of the security barriers and their replacement with a coherent plan to provide accommodation?

Well over 1,000 people seeking asylum have been accommodated since the Government's strategy was announced and published some weeks ago. The Deputy must also acknowledge the unprecedented increase in the number of people seeking asylum in this country in the last three to four years. We have moved from having about 3,500 people per annum seeking asylum in 2019 to a situation this year where there could be anything between 20,000 and 25,000 people who will come into the country seeking asylum. This is separate altogether from the thousands of Ukrainians who have fled war as a result of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.