The Social Democrats will be supporting the extension of the accommodation recognition payment from 27 March. We would like to do so at its current rate. I am conscious that in his contribution, Deputy Carthy spoke about the Opposition needing to reflect on our continued support of this scheme and we do. I reflect constantly. I reflect on the fact that today a court case was taken by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, which demonstrated in a court of law that over 2,500 asylum seekers were forced to defecate on the street, such was the lack of accommodation and how horrendously this is being handled by the Government. I reflect on the fact that private accommodation operators who entered an agreement with the State but provided no accommodation to a single refugee or asylum seeker in the country have been paid millions in settlements in recent years. I reflect on the fact that there are people who have come to this country in search of sanctuary who were placed on the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains in all sorts of weather. We have seen tents on the Grand Canal. I reflect on the fact that a scheme like this, imperfect as it may be, also sees huge numbers of people who came to this country following a horrific invasion of their country placed in the homes of Irish people. Questions have been raised about the data with which the Irish Red Cross demonstrated that over 91% of the people providing accommodation under the ARP scheme had never been registered with the Residential Tenancies Board and had never been private providers, but that is data from the Irish Red Cross. I appreciate that not everybody took part in it but this year and last year I met numerous host families in Ireland who have opened up their doors to Ukrainian families who have become part of the make-up of their communities and their households. The scheme is imperfect, but there is no perfection here. In fact, it is all horror. I listened to Deputy Carthy's contribution and have seen his amendment. We will certainly consider it, but I did not see what we would do differently in that regard. We are not in charge here. The Government has made these decisions. This payment is reflected far better than the giving of millions of euro over to private operators, which I am sure the Deputy will also not be in agreement with. As regards the families I have met who have benefited from a payment such as this, I hosted a meeting in the audiovisual room a couple of weeks ago with the Irish Red Cross. There were a number of families present who had come to Ireland. One woman, whose daughter is now five, has been here since her daughter was one. She is in her school, she was in her crèche, she is perfectly integrated in our communities and she has an amazing relationship with the family that have been able to host them. It is very difficult for me to say I would like to take that away. What happens then? Where do the thousands of people who are still here in search of sanctuary while a war still rages in their country go? I genuinely do not know where they would go. I certainly do not want them to go onto the street. I do not want them to go into private accommodation. Having them in families getting payments of €600 therefore makes sense to me. I do not really know what the alternative being suggested here is.
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I have read the Deputy's amendment but I also listened to his contribution.
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Yes, I listened to the Deputy's contribution. The Social Democrats will support the continuation of the payment because, imperfect as it may be, it is better than the alternatives that exist. The Government does not seem to have a plan at all for the ending of the temporary directive. I listened to the Minister of State's opening contribution earlier and he talked with such vagueness about the ending of the temporary directive: something will be planned and something will happen. However, we heard the exact same speech last year and probably the year before that. There will come a time when the temporary protection directive comes to an end. It is scheduled for March 2027. All the while we talk of that, however, Russian tanks still go through Ukraine, Russian drones are still firing on cities and Russian missiles are still landing in Ukrainian cities. I would like to see a plan. I would like to see the Minister lay out to us what is actually the plan for the payment for the status of the Ukrainian community, whose members have contributed hugely in their friendship and in how they have engaged in our communities, towns and villages. They need some degree of certainty, and that needs to be provided by the Minister's Department. We need more than rhetoric.
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