Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

How beautifully true céad míle fáilte romhat rings from an Irish perspective at the moment. The arms of Ireland are wide open to welcome refugees coming from Ukraine. As of yesterday, my county of Clare had 1,500 Ukrainian refugees. I believe that figure will rise to 1,800 tonight. That is the largest intake of any Irish county. It must be said that it is a rural county and that its capacity to do this is very much under strain but the arms are still wide open and people are very welcome. Like other speakers, I acknowledge the immense efforts of volunteers throughout County Clare who are doing everything from gathering food and collecting shoes to running coffee mornings and helping to ferry kids to school. Their efforts are absolutely immense.

I thank the Minister and his officials for what they are trying to do. This is a crisis situation. Europe is at war and Ireland is playing its part as a neutral nation in welcoming people to safe refuge but I am very concerned about how some of this is unfolding and manifesting itself on the ground. A town and a community can only properly support and offer care, shelter and all of the ancillary supports people require when it has the capacity to do so. The town of Lisdoonvarna in County Clare ordinarily has a population of 300 people. It does not have great GP capacity or immense public transport infrastructure. The schools are small. That community struggles to meet the needs of its surrounding hinterland in ordinary times. At the moment, 850 refugees are staying in the town. The town is very welcoming and warm but it is struggling. It has gone beyond its capacity in this regard.

Again, Lisdoonvarna has a population of 300 people and has taken in 850 refugees. Down the road, Limerick city has a population of 60,000 to 70,000 but there are fewer than 100 refugees in Limerick city. Not every town, village and city is carrying its share of the load and playing its part. More places in Ireland, more towns and villages in Clare and more counties in Ireland need to step up to the plate because, at the moment, refugees are being funnelled into communities that are bursting at the seams and the needs of those refugees are not being fully met. Yesterday morning, a Bus Éireann service from Lisdoonvarna to Doolin National School never arrived. There is no GP capacity.

I will ask for a number of things in my concluding moments. The Minister needs to sanction translators. In schools we have English as an additional language, EAL, teachers, special needs assistants, SNAs, principals and teachers but a translator is absolutely essential from a pastoral, home-school link point of view. We also need a GP service. We have fully trained, fully competent Ukrainian doctors with the full language skill set required in refugee centres. They need to be appointed to do the circuit around all of the accommodation centres to meet people's medical needs because our existing GP service is not sufficient. The point I am trying to make is that we are wide open and welcoming but you cannot funnel hundreds and hundreds of people into an area without providing all of the ancillary supports needed. These are lacking in Clare. Tonight, 1% of the population of Clare will be Ukrainian. Do we have the capacity to help them? We do, to a point, but we have gone beyond that point. More Clare communities need to step up but so does the rest of Ireland. Ancillary supports are crucial to making this a success.

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