Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Deputies Aindrias Moynihan and Eugene Murphy.

It is easy for us all to be critical and say we must have compassion and see what is going on worldwide but it is more complex when we see all the people we have taken in over the years and they are all still incarcerated in homes because the system was unable to deal with them. I signed the motion and believe we should take in the 200 people but it is a more complex issue than we care to even dream of. Some people might not agree but I was privileged to meet the American Secretary of State last Sunday with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan. We listened to him. The Tipperary Peace Convention honoured him for his role and I compliment the convention. They do not give this award lightly. They have been doing this since 1983 and when he addressed us humanely and intently, he told us how difficult the situation is. We had some idea of that beforehand so it is not as simple as rabble-rousing and saying we will do this, that or the other.

I compliment all the NGOs, the Red Cross, the Naval Service and the many people who have done so much over the past number of years rescuing innocent people from the Mediterranean Sea. We must think of the fear felt by those people that would lead them into dinghies and to pay people on the black market to bring them to Europe aboard ramshackle boats with many of them drowning. I salute the Naval Service personnel. They reflect nothing but the spirit of the Irish missionaries who have been recognised all over the world as caring and helpful, we having suffered ourselves before and since the Famine and having our own issues in this country. It is not as simple as opening the floodgates because we have not been able to deal with the people who have come in over recent years. They are in Carrick-on-Suir in my native county and other places. I witnessed the distress when Clonea Strand Hotel in Dungarvan was used last year. It is complex and difficult with all kinds of emotions.

I am in favour of taking in children, certainly aged under six. I have concerns about 14, 15, 16 and 17 year olds and I might be slagged off for that. I visited the Syrian camps in Lebanon with Deputy Grealish and Senator Rónán Mullen and I met young children and their grannies. I saw the fear in their eyes. They put on a welcome for us. We visited at 10 o'clock at night and they had a little cake. These little children were given hours to leave their homes or be slaughtered. We saw how difficult it is to deal with that. I looked for a debate several times with the previous Government over the past number of years about what is going in the Middle East. There is persecution of all Christians and, indeed, all minority Muslim sects. Those denominations had the freedom to practise their own religion or whatever they believed in under the dictators, bad and all as the dictators were and they were bad enough. All hell has broken loose since the invasions and the so-called quest for stability. The Secretary of State acknowledged last Sunday that it is not simple. The people there have to want them to come in and help as well. It is, therefore, complex and it is easy to generalise.

While I am a fierce critic of Tusla, it has said it does not have the expertise or the finances to look after the children in the homes. These children are severely traumatised and I want to take them. My own family is willing to take a child and I have met such an outpouring from people who say they want to take in children and help them in whatever way they can because that is a normal sense of humanity and common decency. If the children are so traumatised, they will need specialised and highly-qualified personnel to deal with them and we must look at that as well. Our State seems to be unable to deal with issues like this when it is asked. There are people we have incarcerated for ten or 15 years in parts of the country and we have to ask why.

There are many complex issues. I have been speaking to the Irish Road Haulage Association over the past 15 months and we have to listen to the truck drivers who have been in Calais about the awful terror they have experienced at times. The fines imposed on them by the French and the British have cost Irish hauliers at least €250,000. Drivers are dealing with huge issues as they go about a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. They are fined €2,000 on the spot if a migrant is found on their vehicle. Most of these are there unknown to them and there is the odd case relating to the black market but that involves a small minority. I know of a truck driver who had a load of 24,000 apples and migrants broke in. Drivers are fined for not securing their vehicles. How can a curtainside trailer be secured? A simple knife will cut it open; it cannot be secured. We must be realistic. The drivers are fined €2,000 and then the insurance companies will not give them cover because the vehicles were not secure. This is an enormous cost to the road haulage industry, which is a vital cog in our export markets. We must support them. Insurance has been loaded against them and many claims are outstanding because the insurance companies are claiming the lorries were not secure. There are many complex issues and we have to protect that industry as well while trying to be compassionate by taking in these people.

Millions of people are displaced and 40% of them are children. Why are some of them there? Why are some of the papers missing? The camp was set up - and it could happen here if a hard border is imposed - from a small beginning and the next thing we had a huge place with an awful name, the "Jungle". Now it is being dismantled and the children have been sent to hell or to Connacht with many gone missing. You have to ask: are they being manipulated or being used as well?

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