Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I begin, as I have done in most of our debates on European Council statements, by decrying the shortage of time we have. It is not in accordance with the commitments we made after the Lisbon Treaty. All of the normal debates, issues and challenges faced at the European Council which we normally debate in this Chamber beforehand, have been eclipsed in the last four weeks following the illegal and unprovoked war of extermination launched by Vladimir Putin’s Russia against the people of Ukraine. The world, and especially Europe, has changed and nothing will be the same again. I welcome the Minister’s comments on the next phase of sanctions that are to be taken and I wish I had more time to deal with them in detail. With the few minutes I have I want to address our short-term and immediate response to this humanitarian crisis which has resulted from the displacement of unknown quantities of human beings within Ukraine and across Europe.

In Ireland we may well be on the edge of Europe but it is expected that we will welcome up to 200,000 refugees here and we must prepare for that. Most importantly, we must be ready today, tomorrow and the next day to receive and properly look after desperate and traumatised people arriving on our shores but I do not believe we are ready.

In particular, I want to reference my home constituency and the port of Rosslare. In a most welcome and generous act, Stena Line is offering free passage aboard its ferries to Ukrainian refugees who seek refuge in Ireland. Yesterday, more than 180 people arrived in Rosslare availing of that facility. Another Stena Line vessel is due to arrive from Cherbourg on Thursday, and an even larger vessel, the Stena Estrid, will arrive from Cherbourg on Saturday. It is expected that many hundreds of people will be on board those vessels, hundreds of traumatised refugees seeking refuge in Ireland. However, while there is an amazing amount of goodwill, from local volunteers trying to do everything they can to the local authorities desperately seeking accommodation and doing what they can, there is an absolute absence of co-ordination at the port.

I ask the Minister and the Minister of State to take action today in regard to co-ordinating a response. We need to appoint a lead agency, as happened during the Covid crisis when the Army was in charge and marshalled the resources of Departments to good effect. There is a variety of agencies and individuals desperately trying to do good but without that co-ordination. The International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, needs a strong physical presence to meet those arriving who have no shelter. Comprehensive Covid testing needs to happen because people are not being tested for Covid. There are practical issues such as making payments. It is taking hours to process people. The Department of Social Protection is giving them cheques. However, third-party cheques cannot be easily cashed by people who have no identification and do not speak English. It is being facilitated now, because it was needed, by the local community bringing people to the local supermarket and providing them with a cashing facility.

Let us be practical about what we can do. In short, there are so many issues, such as the situation with cars. Dozens of cars are arriving but as soon as they drive off the ferries, they are not insured to drive on our roads. What would happen in an accident? We need to talk to the insurance companies this week in order to provide a solution to that. We need to collectively recognise that our ports, in particular, are zones for war refugees, which is something we have never experienced in our lifetime. The closest to this was at the start of the Troubles when there was mass migration across our Border. I have many other suggestions to make from my experience. We need to learn from these matters and act now. That is my appeal. I hope to be able to talk to Ministers directly to put resources in place to meet these matters that are happening this week.

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