Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine and the devastating impact it is having. I will focus on the issue of children.

I acknowledge the work done to date by the various Departments and Ministers. I am aware that much of the work is the responsibility of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. The circumstances are unprecedented. A huge amount of work has been done to date given the situation.

It is estimated that 78 children have been killed and 105 injured. The UN suspects the figures are much higher. Unfortunately, the reality is that they will probably increase over the coming weeks, depending on how long the conflict continues. The UN estimates that 7.5 million children live in Ukraine. To put it into context, that would be 2 million members of our entire population. One in every two children in Ukraine has been displaced. That amounts to just over 4 million children in total. Some 1.8 million of these children have fled Ukraine in total. To put that into context, that is roughly the entire population of Munster and Leinster. These statistics concern children alone. Sometimes when we talk about figures, the message can get lost. It is really frightening to think about the number of affected children. Their homes have been destroyed or damaged. In many cases, fathers have left families to fight the invading Russian army. The children’s schools, crèches, play parks, playgrounds and everything they took for granted have been totally decimated and taken away from them.

There are reports that orphanages have been targeted. Neonatal facilities have been affected. We saw reports of maternity hospitals destroyed by missile attacks. No adult here can imagine how frightening this would be. Imagine being a child in that situation and not knowing what is going on, although picking up on your parents’ fear. Can you imagine trying to keep it together for the sake of your children when you do not really know what is going on yourself? There really are no words sometimes. It is just devastating to think of all those children who, in many cases, do not have access to safe drinking water, healthcare, electricity and heating. Food and medical supplies are dwindling in many circumstances.

We know from other conflicts that children fleeing the war in Ukraine are at greater risk of human trafficking and exploitation. We need to be conscious of that. It was mentioned earlier today in the Chamber that an estimated 6,000 unaccompanied minors have left Ukraine for Ireland and other European countries. We need to be very cognisant of the chaos and confusion. The movement of large numbers of refugees makes it very easy to exploit vulnerable children. Recent reports suggest that 500 unaccompanied children have crossed over the border into Romania alone. The threat children face is real and growing and we really have to do everything in our power to address it.

The whole situation needs to be addressed; however, where unaccompanied minors are concerned, we all have an image of children standing alone or being left totally by themselves. What they have already faced is horrific. We definitely need to ensure they have the safety and protection they so deserve.

While there is an immediate threat to life, it is the hidden or less publicised consequences of this war that will follow children into adulthood. This leads into what Deputy McDonald said about mental health supports. The latter will be critical. Is there a possibility of ascertaining whether we can link schools to some sort of mental health support, particularly where refugees will be attending? Could appropriate play therapy or some sort of regional service in schools and crèches be made available? Schools might provide an easy means of access. We should have access to those services anyway. It might be something we could consider. We need to be cognisant of terminally ill children, children in intensive care and children awaiting life-saving surgery, speech and language therapy or routine developmental checks. We must also be cognisant of what happens to them.

I heard a story from my local hospital that concerned women who had gone through or were in the middle of breast cancer treatment. They arrived here, obviously with no medical information or files, and the hospital was trying to figure out what types of tumours they had and what type of chemotherapy was appropriate. These are matters one would not even think about. We just need to be cognisant of this when asking Departments, hospitals and all our education and childcare services to take on all the extra work. We need to ensure they are supported and resourced to do it.

NGOs have already observed a reduction in vaccination and childhood immunisation, such as for measles and polio. Again, we need to consider children’s access to all the normal developmental checks. We need to be cognisant of how the war affects children’s physical health and all the normal things we take for granted, such as going for a vaccine. All the mental health considerations also need to be taken into account.

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