John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If everything said today by Ministers and representatives of the Cabinet was true, factual and working, we would not be having this debate today. In fact, if the Government had listened to the many backbenchers who raised this issue over and over again at our parliamentary party meetings, we would not be here today. Those of us who were trying to assist in communities were hampered by the Government's refusal to give us the information required to build services within the community to deal with the numbers of people who have come in. I lay it squarely at the door of the Minister and the Government.

Property owners submitted applications to the Department to house Ukrainians who came here fleeing war. They spent a huge amount on those properties and they are now being told, having gone through the five stages, that they are no longer needed. What is the Department going to do to compensate the property owners it led along a five-stage process for the money they spent on their properties in the belief that they were in partnership with the Department? I asked this question before at parliamentary party meetings and the Minister has never responded. I want to know what is going to happen to those property owners.

A simple request made of the Department was to change its website regarding the Capuchin facility, as it is called, to some other name. That was not changed either. Local government officials and executives, for example, of Kilkenny County Council, were never informed of what was happening in Kilkenny regarding either international protection applicants or Ukrainian families. They have had to fight for information and continue to do so to be informed, provide services and assist those who arrive. Still, the Department withholds the information, does not share it in the way it should and blames communication. When I see this being described as a failure of communication, essentially it means a crisis caused by the failure of the Government to deliver in this respect.

Children have been taken from schools and located elsewhere in the country overnight simply because the contract for the property they were in ended. People who were working have been uprooted and put elsewhere. How does the Minister expect a local community to integrate these numbers of people if she does not put at their disposal the information that is necessary?

The Ministers all told the House there are all sorts of supports available. That is not true because there are gaps in the system all over the place and it is impossible to get information. Various requests are sent to the Minister and his advisers but there is no response. I ask that there be a level playing field here. Whether people have been living in Ireland or have come here to live as a refugee or an international protection applicant, they should all have the same resources made available to them. That is a core issue in the debate.

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