Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2023-05-17
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Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

Accommodation services are in crisis, but when Baggot Street hospital was proposed as an accommodation centre, we were told it would take nine months to do a feasibility study. Does taking nine months to do a feasibility study scream urgency and emergency to the Minister? Nobody is underestimating the task that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has. This is why we are asking if other Cabinet Ministers are pulling their weight. He and his staff seem to be very much alone in this endeavour. He has had to repeatedly implore Cabinet colleagues to locate accommodation. On one occasion, a single Department, the Department of Defence, came back with one location, and now the feasibility study is being launched. His Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, cannot even get the Taoiseach to sign off on a communications strategy for local communities.
Who is in charge here? The Minister said the Cabinet is doing everything it can. The Taoiseach said the same but there is absolutely no evidence of that. It seems the Cabinet is at war and there is a complete lack of a co-ordinated approach. When will it sign off on the proposal for community engagement?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-05-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:54+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-05-17