Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 May 2022

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Ukrainian Crisis: Discussion

Mr. Pat Carey:

A number of professional bodies are engaging with one another and with us at this stage to see how they can develop bespoke solutions to different cohorts. I certainly am hopeful. They do not all need to go through us. Work can be done at local level and so on in devising solutions that are appropriate. I can see this growing.

Reference was made to torture. I suppose we have never experienced this. I spent some time on the foreign affairs committee when I was a Deputy. I remember that one of the most traumatic visits I participated in was to Uganda when we saw the result of the Lord's Resistance Army of Joseph Kony and company. Although I had very poor skills at that time, I recall listening to some of the victims of rape and torture and whatever other defilement could have happened. It is like that but multiples of it and worse. I am confident that those regional solutions of a high standard will emerge over time.