Mr. Pat Carey:

My background is in teaching so I would be reasonably familiar with this matter. With regard to the flow of refugees, the first surge would have had a very strong capacity and been well able to look after themselves but the language skills of those coming more recently are limited enough. From what I am hearing, the Departments of Education and of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science have moved mountains to make resources available to schools in order to ensure there is not too much of a divide. Interestingly, I chaired a meeting of an Irish language organisation this afternoon and I noticed that there are Gaeilge go hÚcráinis and Úcráinis go Gaeilge projects going on around the country and online at the moment. They are doing extremely well.

Regarding the lessons the Red Cross has to learn, we are always trying to recruit. Carlow-Kilkenny and the strength of the organisation there is very close to some of our hearts. One of our key objectives as an organisation is to try to make sure we have potential recruits who will join and stay on. During Covid, a lot of people became part of community support networks and so on and they are key to much of what is happening in local communities. The trick for all voluntary organisations is to get recruits and hold onto them. Organisations have to have a programme that is attractive. That is part of what we do. As a people we have learned a lot from the Hungarian, Vietnamese and Bosnian refugees that came here. A lot of learning has happened and a skill set has been built up that we did not realise was as deep-rooted as it is. That will happen again. We should not take our eye off the ball.

The dynamic of every county is different. Public representatives should give themselves a pat on the back. When this started, the first people who got onto us were Deputies, Senators and councillors, because they had already identified vacant houses and so on. When the Ceann Comhairle hosted a coffee morning across the way, I met Members from all parties saying they had six houses and had fixed up six families. That was all done through informal routes. Now that has to be supported with whatever supports are necessary for that to work. There is a role for a loose enough structure but when dealing with vulnerable people and children there needs to be certainty and structure all the time. I encourage the Government to continue to build supports that will outlast this crisis. I think it will be around for a lot longer than some people think.