John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To pick up on one of Deputy Durkan's points, he referred to the importance of how this crisis is handled in terms of the impact on both refugees and our own citizens. In the past few weeks, I have noticed on social media, particularly WhatsApp groups, memes and jokey picture messages with an underlying, insidious element of racism, to be perfectly honest, in pitting refugees against people in Ireland who are in need of a home. I am glad the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has clearly outlined on a number of occasions that the funding for Housing for All is ring-fenced and separate. The provision we are talking about in this debate must be given in additionality. Deputy Michael Collins has left the Chamber but he is the first elected politician I have heard engage in that type of whataboutery on this issue.

Irish people have responded fantastically, as all speakers have said. There is a spirit among Irish people, going back centuries, to help those who most need it. However, this is a unique situation for us. Throughout our history, we have had the advantage of geography in that we are an island in the North Atlantic that has not had a big refugee crisis. Every other country on the Continent of Europe has experienced this before. What we heard from the two Rural Independent Group Deputies was a bit disingenuous and contradictory, with one of them saying we have great facilities in rural Ireland, including schools and town halls, before the other fellow stood up and said the past few Governments have put no investment into rural areas. I could take him to town halls in my constituency. At Ballinkillen community hall in Carlow, for instance, the community group has accommodated 70 people and the process has begun of moving those families into more suitable accommodate for the longer term. The Scout Den in Kilkenny is another such facility and the same is happening at St. John of God Convent and ancillary buildings on that site. There are others doing the same. I do not disagree that more needs to be done but it is deeply unfair for those Deputies to come in here and trot out the single transferable speech they give on everything and condemn the Government for not being able to predict something nobody else did. Even less than six months ago, nobody would have said Russia was going to invade Ukraine.

I should have started my contribution by acknowledging the unspeakable horror that has been inflicted on the Ukrainian people by the leadership and army of the Russian state in the past number of months and stating how welcome these people are in our country. Deputy Michael Collins said he has not encountered any refugees in his constituency who are living in rural areas. I could take him to plenty of parts of Carlow and Kilkenny where that is the case. I was speaking to a former Member of this House from a different county who has a building in his yard that was converted into a home office years ago. A family of six, including a grandmother, father, mother and three children, are now living there. It cost him some €11,000 or €12,000 to have that building converted.

That brings me to the next point I want to raise. How do we secure the additionality we need in terms of accommodation? The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, as a rural person, knows there certainly are rural areas that are too isolated and cut off and which do not have public transport links. However, there are also plenty of rural areas in east Galway, Carlow and Kilkenny that have transport links and where there are properties that are vacant for whatever reason. I often find it is because of title issues or disputes within families. We have an opportunity in the next few months not only to provide accommodation for people now but to bring some of those units back into use for the future. If the Government, rightly, is prepared to pay €25,000 to €30,000 for a year's accommodation in a hotel room in our capital city, it should be prepared to give €10,000 or €12,000 to people down the country who have a vacant property. It might be the house down the road from them in which they were reared. Whatever the scenario, the private individual will get good value for any grant given to renovate such properties and make them habitable. I welcome the proposal by my colleague, Senator Cummins, for opening up holiday homes across the country. Again, some such homes are very isolated and would not be suitable but many of the main holiday centres in the country are well served by public transport. I think Irish people would answer a call to make such properties available. It is all about additionality.

The other possibility is former congregated settings, with which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is very familiar. Many of them have been closed for only one, two or three years and it would take a very small amount of money to make them useable again. There is a large facility in Kilkenny that could take 250 people. I am trying to advance that but there is a bit of a wrangle between different Government agencies. It is only two years since people lived in that accommodation, which is right on the edge of the city. The new bus service would have to be extended slightly but it would be perfect for accommodating refugees. There are many such facilities scattered throughout the country.

Some are in provincial towns. I was thinking of the ex-convent in Mooncoin. It will never be reoccupied but it is only a few years since the nuns left it, and there is a bus route from Limerick to Waterford that goes multiple times a day and stops outside the door of the convent.

None of us, including the Government, expected this to happen. The Red Cross is under pressure and needs help. I encourage the Government to do anything it can in the immediate term in terms of financial aid to bring back some of the dilapidated and vacant accommodation that could be made available as well as the former religious or formerly publicly-owned residential settings. All of those provide an opportunity, as well as some of the holiday homes, maybe, to deliver a safe environment for our Ukrainian refugees for as long as they need it.

See this speech in context