Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

The Minister may not be aware of this but on 9 June, I wrote to the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW and shared that correspondence with his Department. Notwithstanding my fears at the time around the costs associated with that project, my real fear was the potential for anti-social behaviour and vandalism. It is a well known fact that during construction on that site, Sisk, the company involved, directly employed a security company. Many of the security operatives were from the UK.

My concern was that once they left the site, there was potential for antisocial behaviour and vandalism. There is a reason for that which I will not go into at this committee meeting today but I am sure the Minister will make his own inquiries. Fifty of the families attended a meeting with the superintendent of Clonmel Garda station following the most serious of incidents last Tuesday night. I appeal to the Minister to engage with colleagues in An Garda Síochána.

I want to refer to a message I received from one of the Ukrainian families living at the site. Its subject is the dangerous situation at the Clonmel modular homes and it states the Ukrainian families who live in them constantly face a hostile attitude. It adds that during their time there, there have been busted windows, broken fences and stolen scooters and bikes, and that their children are constantly provoked. The message states the families fixed everything and called the Garda but that the situation is escalating. I am a proud Clonmel man and am very concerned. There is a direct reason for what I am referring to and I will be happy to engage with the Minister on it outside this committee meeting, but I appeal to him to engage with An Garda Síochána because the message I am giving is not the one we want to see on the front pages of our newspapers.