Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the statement from the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. The numbers are startling and the scale is something we have not seen since the war in the former Yugoslavia. I extend my welcome to all those Ukrainian people, including families and children, who have recently come into our community. I also commend the local partnerships and the many local people who have done amazing work. I see it on our local WhatsApp residents' groups. People are opening their hearts, they are opening their hands and they are opening their homes to people who are in need.

I am glad the Government seems to have been listening and has expelled four senior officials from the Russian Embassy in recent days, stating that their action was against diplomatic standards. It is heartening there may be some movement in the de-escalation of the war and, it is hoped, that it will end pretty soon. In the meantime, the people of Ukraine still need our humanitarian efforts.

I wish to highlight something we could possibly do. I received an email from one of my constituents yesterday highlighting the work of a support group, Helping Ukrainians in Ireland. He pointed to the information and representation gap on the border between Poland and Ukraine as well as a dire lack of transport. One of the people involved in the initiative is called Joby Redmond and he posted the following:

I am back in ... [Poland] on Saturday. I need a translator and I need help with the organising of getting families to Ireland. I have been trying to do this on my own with my own funds, but I need the physical help now because it’s got very busy and these people want to leave fast. I have got 30 families out in 1 week and that’s nearly 100 people. I'm getting help with buses from Germany, France and UK organisations. There are no Irish organisations helping at the border except for amazing Irish people who have come down to volunteer.

He is working on his own initiative, using his own funds. He has expressed real concern about human trafficking risks if no clear transport is organised. Time and again we have seen how refugees, who are trying to flee war, famine and distress in their own countries, can be abused by people who are seeking to exploit them. I ask the Government to contact this person to see if it can do anything to support him to get people here safely without being exploited by people who are traffickers.

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