Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the witnesses. I followed the earlier part of the debate from my office. I will start where Deputy Cairns left off. It is a valid point. I come from Meelick, County Clare, where, since 1956, we have intermittently had refugees. I grew up with them and befriended them. When I was a primary school teacher, I taught them in my classroom. I went to court with some of them when they were fighting against deportation. They asked a question that I cannot answer, about why they had to put up with between 12 and 14 years in direct provision, with just a little curtain between them and another family at night. They asked why they were deprived of all these supports. I do not have the answers. I do not for a moment want to diminish what the Minister's Department and team, International Protection and Accommodation Services, and all the agencies are doing for Ukrainians. The right things are being done but there are questions to ask. This forum, today, is probably not the place to address it, but Deputy Cairns is correct to raise it and I wish to put on record that there is no answer to those questions.

Some 250,000 children go missing in Europe every year, yet the media chooses one or two children, whom I will not name, to put in the spotlight. There is a media and public frenzy, with outrage and outcry about one or two children who go missing, but thousands more just disappear. That analogy could also apply to a war. I grew up with many people from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who experienced war, murder, rape and burnt villages. They say that what they endured before they fled to Ireland was comparable or perhaps worse than what happened in Ukraine. How are we to know that?

It is not a matter of par for par. We need to look at this, going forward. That is not to take away from the response to the Ukrainian crisis. I will ask a few questions now that I have made that point.

There is an acute need in Ireland. Some 2% of the entire population of Clare is Ukrainian, as will be reflected in the April census. That is a fact. There are more Ukrainian refugees in Clare than in any other county in Ireland, including the capital, I understand. Clare is at capacity. All agencies have attended to meet the refugees but we are without a co-ordinating person. There is no translation service. There is no pastoral care in the school context. I know the Minister has a lot of involvement with Tusla. There is a struggle in the school context to provide pastoral care and a home link. There are people in the Ukrainian community with the language skill set required. We need to appoint translators to provide a pastoral link to home, school and the community. There is a need for co-ordinators.

It is right to say the arms of Ireland are wide open. If people come to our country, we will wrap our arms around them, care for and protect them. However, there is a capacity issue. Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, began 2022 with a population of 300 people. It now has a population of 1,300 people. It is right to welcome those people but it is wrong to funnel 1,000 people through a system that does not have the requisite public transport capacity, education capacity or public healthcare capacity. There has not been a wider view of how this can be catered for. There are few refugees in the capital. They are being sent to scenic tourism towns in the west of Ireland, where there is seasonal accommodation and hotels. They are being funnelled through that accommodation system. These areas look beautiful. They are lovely in May and June. However, they do not meet the needs of refugees. These places are crumbling. This needs to be looked holistically.

The International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, is the co-ordinating body but we cannot reach its representatives. I think that organisation is under the Department of Justice but even though I have asked if that is the case, it has not confirmed that. Its representatives are impossible to get in touch with. When the proverbial hits the fan, people get onto their local politicians and we have no one to turn to in Clare. We are trying to find solutions and fix problems that are so complex we cannot get around them. IPAS is not to be found. We need the Minister to intervene in that regard to ensure it has a presence on the ground.