David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have only five minutes to respond to a two hour debate. First, I acknowledge the emotion, sincerity, frustration and anger of colleagues here this evening to what we have seen on our television screens. This is the issue of our age, namely, 65 million people that we know of displaced across the world and, so far, 4,000 people that we know of who have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Our ships, to which speakers have alluded tonight, have rescued 14,000 people since they went to the area. I acknowledge that achievement.

As we speak, I understand that the children to whom we referred in Calais are being moved to proper and better accommodation. I hope the French and British authorities are talking to and working with the children to see how they can be housed safely. Most of the children, 95%, of whom we know want to go to the UK. Many of them are aged between 14 and 18. As the Tánaiste indicated, we will do what we can when the opportunity arises.

We pledged to take in 4,000 refugees under the structured programme to which Deputy Eamon Ryan referred, from Lebanon and Greece. So far, 609 people have arrived and we hope to have 1,000 by the end of the year. Progress to date has not been easy. Speakers have mentioned 800 inquiries about migrant children but we are only aware of 25 such inquiries. If colleagues have the names and addresses of people who want to take in migrant children they should please ask them to contact the Red Cross and we will process the applications and deal with them. We are working hard to try to bring in people from Lebanon and we are meeting our targets in that regard. The process involved in taking refugees from Greece is now working but the arrangement with Italy did not work due to technical and security issues. That is what we have been focusing on to date. The system is working and its speed is ramping up. The officials are working very hard on the ground in those locations. We want to bring in children. To date, 411 children have come here under the programme.

I have visited many of the direct provision reception centres. I invite colleagues to go to see them if they have not done so already, but to do so quietly and respectfully. They should not go in with cameras or an entourage but quietly meet the people and check out the situation for themselves because many of those who talk about direct provision centres have not been in any of them. If anyone wants to visit a centre he or she should please contact my office or the office of the Tánaiste and we will make arrangements for them to do so. People can see for themselves what is going on and meet and talk with people who are there.

At the moment 500 people in the centres, of whom 137 are children, have got refugee status but we cannot get accommodation for them. If colleagues know of people who would make housing available for those people they should please let us know. We are trying very hard to house those people through the local authorities and State agencies. They are already in the country and have refugee status but we are struggling to find places for them.

I welcome the support of colleagues this evening. I also welcome the debate. I said to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade some time ago that we should have a full day’s debate on the issue because as Deputy Wallace and others have said it is the issue of our age and we really need to work on it. We will take any assistance or support that we can get. The information we have is that the children of whom we speak are moving from Calais tonight. They are not there anymore but are moving out and moving on. We have been in contact with our embassies in the UK and France and we are fully up to speed with what is going on there. The situation should never have reached the current stage but at long last people are moving on from Calais. However, there are similar situations to the one that existed in Calais all over the world. We know they exist in the Greek islands, Lebanon and Jordan and that there are places that are even worse than Calais. We have done a service tonight in having this debate but let us not politicise it too much and see what ideas, suggestions and supports people can come up with. It is correct to say that we need people in this country to come together and say they have houses and they will take in children. I agree that people must be vetted for safety reasons, which is very important. That will be done, but we have only had 25 offers so far. I welcome the debate, which was a good one. It was a powerful and emotive debate and we will probably need to do it again, but our door is open to anybody who wants to come to us with constructive suggestions, ideas and support because those people really need our help.

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