Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It raises hugely complex issues. According to Greek figures and in terms of numbers taken for resettlement up to 28 September 2016, Lichtenstein is ahead of us, as are Norway, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, Iceland and Malta. However, we are not a front-line country with people arriving on our shores. However, we are absolutely committed to taking the numbers I have outlined within the structures of the EU. It has been a slow start and I regret that but it is outside my control or that of Government. Nevertheless, the procedures are in place and staff teams from the Department of Justice and Equality are going out to refugee camps to identify people. We are working with Greece to ensure that people know Ireland is an English-speaking destination. The numbers are increasing now and will rise very significantly.

We have only dealt with several hundred to date but those people have come into our emergency reception centres, they have received English language training and have been put in contact with local services. They have moved out to communities across Ireland and they are now beginning the integration process. There is an absolute commitment to meet the targets we set. I take the Deputy's point that the scale of this is appalling. We must ask if there is more we can do and also what else we could be doing. We are open to reconsidering the numbers next year but our first commitment is to take the numbers we said we would take within the EU scheme. We have spoken to the Greek authorities about identifying young, unaccompanied minors. Deputy Clare Daly has the numbers for Calais but we are not working in Calais.

We are, however, working with the Greeks to identify young unaccompanied minors. Some significant issues arise in respect of unaccompanied minors. The first one of these is identifying them and many of those who were initially identified as unaccompanied minors were actually 19, 20 or 21. This is a problem that is recognised by all groups carrying out assessments in Greece. I have spoken to the CEO of Tusla and that organisation has a commitment to take unaccompanied minors. We are in the process of identifying them and we want to do the very best for them. We believe the best thing would be to have foster homes for them but there is a shortage of foster carers in Ireland at the moment. We must do everything we can to encourage more people to become foster parents. I am advised that unaccompanied minors will begin to arrive shortly and will be placed in foster care.

The Deputy said that nothing had been done in terms of a public response but that is incorrect. I chaired a meeting on Monday at which the Red Cross was represented. That organisation has worked with all the people who have offered pledges and it has identified people who are willing to supply housing. Some very difficult issues arise in the context of pledges which come in from the public. It is not the role of this committee to go into huge detail on them but the Red Cross has done very significant work in the past number of months with people who have given pledges, many of whom offered accommodation for three months or a year. We need to consider the sustainable issues around that and where refugees go afterwards. They will be citizens at that point, actually, but the question remains of where they go when their accommodation ceases to be available after a year or so. Local authorities were also at the meeting on Monday and they are giving a very significant response, as evidenced by the numbers who have already gone through the emergency reception centres. Insurance issues arise and there are health and safety issues.

The Red Cross has now got to the point where it can say there are a certain number of houses available for the refugees who are coming in. A total of 640 have been supplied already and I think the figure for pledges from the public is approximately 160. The Red Cross is working assiduously with the Department and other stakeholders to make sure that, as refugees arrive, they will be in a position to utilise those pledges. The Deputy is wrong to say that the work is not being done. The work is being done by the Red Cross. There is a huge amount of detail in this work. It is one thing for the public to respond to what they saw on the beaches of southern Greece but it is quite another thing to put in place a system whereby we can use the pledges we have received.

The churches are also involved in offering accommodation and that is also being worked through with the church representatives. I held a meeting with them and the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton, is doing a huge amount of work in this area. There has been a slow start, not to our resettlement programme but to our relocation programme. People are now arriving every month, however, in increasing numbers. This will test the systems and we will have to make sure that our education system and our health system respond locally to the needs of the refugees. These needs are complex, as anybody who has met Syrian refugees in this country or any group of families will know. Young men who have spent four or five years in refugee camps and are now trying to rebuild their lives have very complex health needs. We have met the Departments of Health and Education and Skills to ensure we have a proper response to all these issues.

I understand the Deputy's frustration and that she wants to do more but the work is under way and we will meet our commitments. We are meeting them now in an accelerating way. The Deputy also asked about family reunification, for which people who arrive here are eligible. Many of the 4,000 who are arriving are families and a ratio is built into the system for applications made for family reunification on the part of people whose families are not with them.