Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The supports being offered to refugees and new communities are invaluable, but they are usually for a limited time. I have met some refugees. Although they received invaluable support, they were expected to cope on their own after a certain while. They had made connections with staff and were still putting questions to them and looking for their support even after the programmes they had been on had finished. The staff had got to know them and were reluctant not to help them. The staff are taking on a great deal of extra work and responsibility.

If any of us had to uproot suddenly and go to a different country where we were unable to speak the language, were unfamiliar with the culture or way of life and had nothing with us, we would want support as well. The greatest support of all is staff and we would make connections with those staff. There needs to be enough support to help the Ukrainians coming to Ireland, to continue helping other refugees who are here and to continue helping local people on the ground. This is my greatest concern.

It has been mentioned to me that community response forums did not reach out to family resource centres. While this is a different issue, I hope that they will because those centres provide a great deal of support to people on the ground.

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