Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Prior to being elected to the Dáil, I spent many years advocating for change in how we facilitate immigration in Ireland, how we allow migrants to enter, what rights we grant migrants who enter and how we help people to become and feel part of society. In the past ten weeks, 28,000 Ukrainians have come to our shores seeking refuge from war. We have provided accommodation to all who have asked for it, some 19,000 people, and people across the country have opened their homes to them.

In terms of facilitating integration of this extraordinary flow of inward migration, the Government and broader society are getting the fundamentals right. Key to this is the temporary protection directive and particularly how Ireland is implementing it swiftly for new arrivals. I credit my colleagues in the Department of Social Protection for their role in this. People are granted the same rights as EU citizens immediately. This is a game changer as I believe broader society is also more inclined to see our new arrivals as equal because they have been granted equal rights. There will be an enduring bond, beyond this war, between Ireland and Ukraine, as the basis of many Ukrainians' introduction to Ireland will facilitate successful integration. Successful integration will also happen very much because of the groundswell of support from individuals and communities across the country. Personally, I have never seen anything like it and we in Government must nurture and support this public reaction. One of the ways we can do this is through our support of the community and voluntary sector. The fast, responsive and adaptable reaction of the community and voluntary sector across the country has been extraordinary. While there has been leadership at the highest levels in government on this issue, there also has been leadership in spades across the country at community level. However, there is more to do.

Community response fora have been set up in every local authority area to co-ordinate the local State and community sector response to the Ukrainians accommodated in each area. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has provided supports to local authorities for these fora. I have visited 12 different accommodation locations across the country in the past two months and everyone I have met is working hard to assist Ukrainians to settle in. Agencies are generally working well together. The local authority-convened community response fora must continue reaching out to all Ukrainians in their areas, especially those accommodated by the State, and assess additional needs. I also ask all community groups working with Ukrainians to connect with their local community response fora. In all the locations that I visited, and Roscommon last week was a prime example, the local response to Ukrainians has been strongest and most supportive in the areas where inter-agency relations have been established and grown, where community and statutory bodies work hand-in-hand and where new working relationships are formed and old ones strengthened. It is also key that all community response fora include representation of Ukrainians themselves in the fora. I am staying connected to the issues on the ground by visiting local responses and regularly meeting stakeholders such as Community Work Ireland, Volunteer Ireland, The Wheel and the Irish Local Development Network.

I also want Members to be aware of the work being carried out in response to the Ukrainian crisis by two particular programmes funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development. First, there is our network of funded volunteer centres and staff across the country and the volunteers they support. We have a funded volunteer centre in every local authority area, which is a massive resource and is doing extraordinary work. I also acknowledge the hundreds of community workers across the country who, under the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, have turned their attention to the needs of Ukrainian refugees in their communities. I attended an online meeting this morning regarding how SICAP nationally through its over 600 community workers, even before the Ukraine crisis, was doing so much work to facilitate the integration of migrant communities. Now these workers are stepping up to the plate again with their expertise and connections to assist Ukrainians across the country.

I assure the volunteers, SICAP workers and the broader community and voluntary sector that I am working at national level with other Departments to get more supports for their work. I am aware that their workload remains while they have done this additional work over the past two to three months. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman and I met a number of NGOs and community groups working on the ground two weeks ago and we have taken on board the issues they raised. We are working on them and hope to meet the groups again soon.

On the issue Deputy Duncan Smith raised with regard to the Shoreline Hotel, I understand that school transport has now been organised. Fingal County Council is going in there. English language classes are starting today via Fáilte Isteach and next week, and this is a model I expect will be replicated in other hotels around the country, Fingal County Council is facilitating all those key State agencies to come in and meet the refugees.

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