Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Regarding Deputy McDonald's point, I will revert to the Tánaiste in relation to that. We all of course want workplaces that are free of violence and harassment. A whole raft of legislation is already in place on our Statute Book dealing with harassment and violence in the workplace and to protect employees. Sometimes the various declarations passed by international organisations have wide-ranging implications which must be examined in considerable detail before they end up on the Statute Book here through legislative ratification. This is often not understood, and sometimes people feel it is just a matter of getting on with it and endorsing such proposals without having any examination of the implications of international resolutions passed in various forums. That said, I will ask the Tánaiste to revert to the Deputy regarding this issue.

On the Irish Refugee Council and its recommendations, one of the issues now is that thousands of houses have been pledged. Many holiday homes have been pledged. The issue now is to process those as quickly as we possibly can. Some are empty houses and some are shared houses. The Irish Red Cross was the initial recipient of the pledges of accommodation. We have provided resources to local authorities and Army personnel to make calls and so on. The fundamental emphasis right from the beginning has been on procuring hotels and a whole variety of other accommodation. It is extraordinary that 16,000 people have been accommodated in seven or eight weeks and more than 25,000 people have come into the country. Some have been accommodated privately through families. Other NGOs have pledged houses through their informal networks.

I met representatives of one organisation yesterday - Angie Gough and others - which organised 200 houses to be made available. They had some interesting perspectives on this matter and regarding what supports we can give to hosts, because there can be many uncertainties in that regard. I refer to what has happened in the education and health systems and in the provision of personal public service numbers, PPSNs. Of those Ukrainians who have come into the country, 99% now have a PPSN. There is also an extensive one-to-one employment service engaging with Ukrainians regarding access to the workplace, for example.

I have met many displaced persons - which is what Ukrainians prefer to be called - who have fled the war. Their gratitude to the Irish and for what is being done is heartfelt. That was the overriding response I got from them yesterday. Obviously, there are concerns about education. They are worried. We have to work with them to reassure them that we will be able to do all of that. There were meetings in the schools in that area yesterday with the parents to try to facilitate the entry of their children to primary school and so on. Those children have also been through a great deal of trauma. A whole range of wrap-around services are required. There will be significant challenges because this is the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. The United Nations has published extraordinarily shocking figures on the numbers of people displaced internally and those who have fled Ukraine. As we speak, close to 5 million people have moved to other countries in Europe. Those displaced internally could number approximately 8 million. These are frightening figures of terror, trauma, death and destruction.

We simply have to do everything we can to respond. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is leading that response in terms of the pledges and so on. Equally, public servants are working flat out and I want to pay tribute to them. They have been flat out for the past number of weeks procuring facilities and so forth. Individual pledges and the safeguards that have to go with them are far more time-consuming too. There is a balance that has to be struck between the two and they are working on that.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised Security Officers United, private security workers and issues of pay. I will talk to the Tánaiste about it but there are various labour relations mechanisms by which these issues can be improved upon.

Deputies Paul Murphy and Bacik raised the teachers' unions. In the social dialogue we are having with the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, we agreed we would explore the broad range of issues around inflation and the cost of living and that we would enter into exploratory talks with a view to having an inclusive strategic response to these issues that would be in the best interest of society as a whole. Obviously pay is an issue in that respect. In 2021, the average increase in pay was about 4.7% and in 2020 the average increase in pay was 5.2%. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has invited the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the public service unions to talks in respect of the existing agreement. That will commence.

On Deputy Bacik's point about the minimum wage, there is a process and procedure for that. We are best placed to stick with that but we will hear what people have to say in respect of presentations on it. There are established independent mechanisms to advise Government on general increases in the minimum wage.

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