Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I want to particularly thank my colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, who is helping him. I believe they have done a remarkable job in organising that in a calm, humane, compassionate, all-hands-on-deck way. It is not just that Department but also the Department of Justice, given the way we welcome people at the airport, the Department of Social Protection in giving everyone their social welfare details and so on, the Department of Transport in arranging buses for areas where displaced people have come, and the Department of Education in taking all of those children into our schools.

However, we have a question now. We cannot give up. We roll up our sleeves. We commit to do more. It will be more public accommodation now because the private has to be balanced with accommodation in the rest centres in the community, in refurbished buildings, in fast-build housing and in new centres. We commit to delivering that and to be the voice for the Irish people who stand with an approach where we welcome and recognise the rights of people coming to this country.

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