Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have worked with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to help people fleeing war - women and children - into our areas, communities and schools. They now work in our areas. I commend everything that has been done and the communities that welcomed them into their houses. They are all integrated into our area. They play sports and are involved in community games. What has been done is brilliant but the Government wanted to bring 251 people into an old school in Limerick. It was going to bring them into 19 classrooms and put 13 people in each room. This was not a boarding school. People in Limerick stood up, spoke nicely, asked questions and said it was inhumane. Would anyone here put 13 children, if they had 13 children, into one room? No. Why? Because they would fight. The Government wants to put 13 men, women and children into a room together without proper facilities. That is inhumane. That is what people are asking about. It is not that they are far right or far left. They are asking questions for the safety of people we are looking after in this country. That is all we are asking. Would the Minister for Justice do it to her own children? She has children. Would she ask 13 children to move into one room? She would not. The Government does not have the proper accommodation to deal with people. We ask it to put a cap on it until we can look after people like the Irish people do. They put people into their houses and help them in every way they can. People are asking the questions for humanitarian reasons.

See this speech in context