Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are speaking about women and children. I accept that the policy of the Department is to assist them all. What happened in Killarney is entirely unacceptable. Will the Minister set up an independent advocacy service for Ukrainian people who have serious complaints about the way they are being treated? When I sent a complaint to the Department, without prejudice, seeking an independent inquiry by the Department, the service provider and the local authority went to the women and their children and told them they should not have gone to a public representative and that we had no role in dealing with the issue. People have been shouted at and intimidated. They have been punished for coming to me. One of the complaints was that a service provider employee threatened that people would be sent back to Ukraine if they did not withdraw their complaints. This is totally unacceptable. We need an independent advocacy service so that Ukrainian women and children will be properly and appropriately listened to and serious complaints will be independently investigated. What happened in County Louth is unacceptable. The Department has not got back to me. I know it was not the Minister personally. The Department has not come back to me with an answer on how it will deal with the complaint. This happened more than six weeks ago.

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