Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I echo Deputy English's comments. I express my thanks, both personally and on behalf of the Government, to everyone who has helped to accommodate people coming from Ukraine. It is easy to forget, but we have never seen anything like this in Ireland before.

We were used to somewhere between 3,000 and 12,000 so 80,000 in one year is an extraordinarily big number. They are going to continue to come because unfortunately the war in Ukraine is far from over. I want to thank all of the accommodation providers, the communities that have welcomed Ukrainians and the people who have welcomed them into their homes. I also want to thank the staff in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. That Department was set up to do different things. It was set up to bring forward the children's rights agenda, to reduce the cost of childcare, and to improve our disability services. It was not set up to deal with the biggest refugee crisis we have ever seen in the history of the State and the staff have really stepped up. I know they are under a lot of pressure and I want to record my thanks to them.