Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Perfect. I am very happy to do that.

These amendments relate to what is effectively new legislation introduced by the Government on Committee Stage, which is extremely poor practice in terms of having any parliamentary oversight. We should have had new legislation. The Government wants to strip rights from Ukrainians and put them on poverty rates as it treats other asylum seekers. It should have the courage to bring forward the heads of a Bill and have pre-legislative scrutiny and debate, as opposed to bringing this measure into legislation that has nothing to do with it. We supported this Bill on Second Stage because of the long-overdue reforms it makes to the treatment of maintenance by the social welfare system. Instead, we have two new sections that are far-reaching and shameful for the Government, in particular the Green Party.

Under the Government's proposal, Ukrainians will be subjected to this. The Government likes to talk a lot about its support for Ukraine. It often suggests that we are in some way soft in opposing Putin's imperialist invasion of Ukraine. The war is ongoing and people are still fleeing from it but the Government is saying these people will lose their accommodation after 90 days and will have to try to survive on €38.80 a week. It is nothing short of shameful.

The Government knows this is not enough money to live on. In 2020, its own advisory group, addressing the provision of support, including accommodation, to persons in the international protection process, recommended that the weekly expenses allowance be increased from January 2021 and then "revised regularly in line with the cost of living". Of course, the initial increase it recommended never happened and the €38.80 was not increased in line with the cost of living either. Since 2020, prices have risen by roughly 20%, so families in direct provision, who are already in extreme poverty and hardship, have faced a cut of 20%, or one fifth, in their income in real terms over the past four years. That has forced women and girls in direct provision into survival sex work. The Government knows this and is now proposing that the same thing should happen to Ukrainian women and girls who come here fleeing a terrible and ongoing war. You would think from what the Minister is going to say that the war had ended. Surely she would not be seeking to discourage Ukrainians from coming here if the war was still ongoing and people were still being killed daily but that is exactly what she is doing. She is talking about effectively creating a pressure for Ukrainians to go back to an active war zone.

It was a mistake for the Government to create a two-tier asylum system in the first place, where it treated Ukrainians with some basic modicum of decency by giving them a basic amount required to survive while continuing to put the rest of asylum seekers on extreme poverty levels. That was a mistake but the mistake was not in treating some people with respect and decency but in not treating all asylum seekers with a basic level of humanity and decency or giving them enough to survive on some sort of reasonable level. The Government is getting rid of the two-tier system but instead of levelling up, it is bringing both tiers down to the pitiful levels of €38.80.

The Minister stated on Committee Stage that once the Bill is enacted, Ukrainians will only be able to stay in the new accommodation centres for 90 days. After that, they will have the choice to leave and look for accommodation in the middle of the worst ever housing and homeless crisis created by the Government or, in the Minister's words, "return home" to a war zone. The Government currently participates in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. It has sent soldiers to train Ukrainian army personnel. It has used this to drive a coach and horses through neutrality, yet it is saying these people should simply be pressured to go home and given a choice between homelessness and returning to an active war zone. The Minister even had the gall on Committee Stage - I read the proceedings - to lecture Ukrainians fleeing a war that has killed huge numbers of people, stating that "people have to take responsibility for themselves". That is truly shocking.

I oppose Sinn Féin amendments Nos. 2 and 3, and amendment No. 1 because it is related. The 90-day period is going to happen. People are going to be forced out of accommodation centres because the Government will get a majority. The effect of the amendments will be to make life even more miserable for Ukrainian refugees who are already suffering the massive trauma of conflict, displacement and the deaths of loved ones. With the Sinn Féin amendment, not only would people be down to €38.80 when they are in an accommodation centre but when the Government kicks them out of the centre, they would still be on €38.80. How on earth are people supposed to survive without having any accommodation if they are only on €38.80?

Regarding amendment No. 3, the Government has at least the basic decency to maintain equal rights to healthcare for future Ukrainian refugees, whereas Sinn Féin - as far as I can tell but Deputy Ó Laoghaire can clarify - wants to strip them of that equality. It wants to limit healthcare for these families to "emergency care and essential treatment of illness". Leaving aside even basic humanity, I cannot understand how it would make sense to deny Ukrainian children access to childhood vaccinations. I do not think that will be covered by this wording. It is also not clear to what extent mental health care would be covered. Would trauma counselling count as an essential treatment of illness? I suspect the answer might depend on who is asking the questions.

I am opposed to these amendments but I am also opposed to the scandalous insertion of new sections, and on that basis I am opposed to this Bill at this stage.

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