Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the more than 14,000 Ukrainian people who have already arrived into Ireland. A couple of weeks ago they could not possibly have imagined packing up their lives and moving to the far side of this Continent. I hope that their time here, whether long- or short-lived, brings them the safety and support they so badly need and deserve.

Ukrainians arriving at Dublin Airport are being met by a welcome group - a team of Department officials who are helping them to set up PPS numbers and get access to social welfare support. I thank the Ministers, Deputies O'Gorman, Humphreys and McEntee, for putting together that seamless emergency process.

More than 20,000 Irish people have pledged accommodation through the Red Cross. Right now, there are hundreds of Ukrainian refugees in hotels in my constituency and education welfare officers are working tirelessly to find school places for hundreds of children in my area. Last week, Frances Fitzgerald MEP, Councillor Vicki Casserly and I visited St. Andrew's National School in Lucan, where a Ukrainian child has been enrolled in the primary school there. In Palmerstown, a family I know have taken in a 16-year-old Ukrainian teenager who had no family to stay with. Collections are happening in schools right across my constituency and in community centres such as Rathcoole Community Centre. The kindness which characterises so many Irish people is the sense of not just wanting to help but needing to help. I know of barbers offering free haircuts to Ukrainian refugees, of crèches offering free childcare places and of businesses looking to employ Ukrainian people who are available for work.

However, as a Government, we certainly would not encourage any Ukrainian person to take up work immediately. Instead, people should take a little time to settle in and recover from the trauma of their journey here before they think about contributing to the workforce. If there are businesses or companies seeking to advertise employment, they can do so on JobsIreland.ie. I was heartened to hear about the Ukrainian pop-up shop in Clarendon Street, which has been set up by a Ukrainian-Irish businessman to provide free clothes, toys, food and essentials. It is one example of the kindness that is being shown.

I commend the work the Government has done to welcome and accommodate people from Ukraine. More than 7,000 people have been provided with accommodation by the International Protection Accommodation Services so far. The Minister's Department is working closely with the Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice, Tusla and the Irish Red Cross Society to house Ukrainian refugees as quickly as possible and eventually to progress the offers of accommodation that have been made by Irish people into accommodation itself. It is very important to have contingency options in place should the numbers arriving exceed the accommodation available. At this point, it is looking very likely that they will. While we certainly wish for our Ukrainian friends to be able to return home safely as soon as they wish, I doubt that even the most optimistic among us see the war in Ukraine ending soon. That is why it is essential that we plan for the future and the long term in terms of both accommodating refugees and responding to the international impacts that the war in Ukraine is having on Ireland in respect of the cost of living.

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