Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

First, I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, on his new position. I wish him very well in the role in the term ahead. Second, because I have not done so already, I join colleagues in expressing my condolences on the death of Private Seán Rooney. The European Council expressed its condolences at the weekend.

Coming up to a year ago - 24 February I think was the date the war in Europe kicked off - we spoke in this House in the weeks leading up to that point and none of us could quite believe what was coming. I spoke about the sabre-rattling of Putin and his regime. I just could not foresee a situation where the tanks would roll across the border and the missiles would fly through the air and start destroying Ukrainian cities and killing innocent civilians. A year on we have seen the absolute depravity of this war and it does not look like it will end anytime soon.

I wish to raise, as Deputy Berry did a few minutes ago, the issue of the European Peace Facility fund. Ireland has committed €66 million for purchase of non-lethal weaponry, that is body armour, medical bags and so on. Non-lethal weaponry could also extend to weapons to intercept missiles, such as those that came down on the city of Dnipro, or radar to intercept them. That would be consistent with the programme for Government. The relevant line reads:

Within the context of the European Peace Facility [fund], Ireland will not be part of decision-making or funding for lethal force weapons for non-peacekeeping purposes.

These would be non-lethal weapons. Ireland should do everything it can to prevent the utter carnage we see in Ukraine at the moment.

We should also look to the stores of weapons we have in this country. We have such equipment in our own military stores and could send it to Ukraine. We should actively consider that. Doing so would not contravene our neutrality. I believe that it is the morally and ethically right thing to do. We should do everything we can to help protect the civilians of Ukraine from Russia's acts of terrorism against them.

On the issue of neutrality, we are in the untenable situation where we are a neutral country but we cannot defend our neutrality. Speakers before me have talked about the importance of focusing now on our ability to defend ourselves and investing in it. The Commission on the Defence Forces report last year, the publication of which was a commitment in the programme for Government, points the way to significant, increased spending on our Defence Forces. Members have talked about the importance of pay and conditions and I absolutely agree with them, but the war in Ukraine should sharpen our focus when it comes to defence.

I was on a ferry coming back from France in March of last year. I was one of very few Irish people on the ferry. There were hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand, refugees from Ukraine on the same ferry coming into Rosslare. The television was on in the lounge of the ferry and citizens of Mariupol were watching the television and watching their city at that moment being reduced to rubble. There is nothing left of Mariupol now. I saw those citizens there. I watched with them. They were in tears as they saw their homes being destroyed. We have to continue to remember the utter devastation that has been brought to Ukraine. We cannot let this issue settle to the back of our minds. We have to keep it as a top priority for us in this country.

The flow of refugees into this country has created huge challenges for us and will continue to do so. We have had a population surge, a 7.6% increase in population, in the past five years. A lot of that is down to the good work of previous governments, including the job creation and the net inward migration. This country has got back on its feet in the past five or ten years from a very low point around 2010 and 2011, but now we have tens of thousands, 70,000 or 80,000, extra refugees on top of that 7.6% increase in the population.

We are in a situation where we have not developed housing commensurate with the population increase we are seeing and with the refugee crisis on top of that we are in a dire situation with housing. I welcome the intent to revise the Planning and Development Act 2000, which the Minister of State will know a lot about from his previous role. We should be expeditious when it comes to planning. We should always be mindful of the rights of residents' groups and stakeholders, which should all be taken seriously, but we have to be able to make quick decisions and we have to build housing at a scale we simply have not done for many decades. This Government is doing that and will continue to do it but we can leave no stone unturned.

There is an argument, in the context of this increasing population and Ireland's role in taking in refugees and international protection applicants, to look again at our development plans and at the land we have around our country that is available for development. It is much harder in Dublin than it is in the city I come from, Limerick. We have a lot of land for development and we have infrastructure that can support the development of this land. I urge the Minister of State, in any engagements he has with the Land Development Agency, to point to Limerick and the vast land banks that are there. We can build high quality and high density housing near sustainable transport infrastructure and other critical infrastructure. We can take a lot of the pressure off cities like Dublin that are creaking at the seams. The reopening of the Limerick to Foynes railway line will happen by 2025, initially for freight purposes, but there is an opportunity there to develop residential settlements along the railway line in places like Raheen, Patrickswell, Adare, Askeaton and Foynes. That is a significant opportunity but the development plan in Limerick precludes us from developing those areas. We need to go back into those development plans, even though many of them have just been agreed in the last year. We need to go back in, see what land is available and what infrastructure is there and activate as much land and residential development as we can in line with the good policies this Government already has in place in housing and development.

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