This is an eminently sensible amendment and I hope the Minister would take it on board. Since the Minister has come into office and discussed these matters, the provision of IPAS accommodation and the system he inherited, he has pointed to a set of circumstances that previous Ministers had to live with. They experienced a very significant increase in demand for IPAS accommodation and temporary protection accommodation. They made decisions in a rush. Are they contracts we would enter into now? From the Minister's perspective he would say no, they are not. If the Minister really wants to deliver and is committed to delivering a step change in the system that people can have confidence in, and it is essential that communities can have confidence in the system, this is exactly the type of amendment the Minister will take on board. It is eminently sensible. The offence for many people and many communities was just the type of approach the Government has taken in recent years. Literally, the only thing that was needed was a willing landlord. No other circumstance mattered. Contracts were entered into and are still in place in many cases that are completely unjustifiable. They are insane, reckless, dangerous and, if the Comptroller and Auditor General is anything to go by, there is nowhere near the level of transparency or accountability in relation to them. To add insult to injury, the level of consultation was and remains in some cases absolutely pathetic. For example, section 5 exemptions as a matter of policy are, for everybody involved, an act of insanity. It immediately leads to suspicion on behalf of people and to questions being raised like why was there no consultation or opportunity to engage? Why was this the exception and practically the only exception? Of course, others play on that and add fuel to the fire. We need a system that people can have confidence in, that has the necessary level of consultation and engagement. I am in the Meath East constituency and we have had extensive experience in recent years and further back to Mosney, which was the largest direct provision centre in the State for a long time. We had Thornton Hall, which was to be one of the State's significant or major State-owned accommodation centres. We have a number of smaller centres. We have a number of section 5 exemptions that caused huge uncertainty, confusion and everything that goes with that in communities where there was essentially speculation on behalf of wealthy developers. Some of those developers made their fortunes on the back of this system and do not have good standing in the community at all. A feature of every single one of those efforts, some of which are successful, some which never happened and others are well embedded in the communities, is a failure of adequate consultation and engagement with public representatives and with the community at large. My colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, gave credit to some departmental officials. I do not share in giving that credit at all in my own experience, particularly relating to Thornton Hall. I have stood in rooms with hundreds of people where I felt we had a way forward and the barrier in all of it was the departmental officials and the lack of proper information and communications. It was a recipe for failure. That is what was seen in many cases. This amendment provides an objective set of criteria. It calls for a community impact assessment. If we want to approach these matters in the right way, we must ensure that communities have the opportunity to have their say, that they can contribute to it, that this is a managed system that recognises the needs of communities and the impact of future development, whether it is in terms of international protection or other development, and that we have a sense of that impact. I can speak on behalf of my own community, the Meath East constituency, where GP numbers are the lowest per head of population in the State, Garda numbers are the lowest per head of population in the State and classroom sizes are among the highest in the State. Each of those criteria have to be taken into account in terms of the development. The proposal for a community impact assessment is an eminently sensible one. It would be very well recognised as an important factor among communities. They would appreciate it. It would show a commitment on behalf of the Government to recognise if it is saying there were a particular set of circumstances that gave rise to rushed decisions. If the Minister is looking for a new dispensation there is an opportunity in this amendment to do just that. I encourage him to take the opportunity.

Sentiment score: 0.06