Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the past year, since the illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we have seen large numbers of people from Ukraine come to Ireland. They come here legally under the EU's temporary protection directive and under international law we are, of course, obliged to accommodate and facilitate these people who are fleeing war. We have also seen large numbers of people come to Ireland from other countries, including in Africa and Asia, seeking international protection. Again, we have international legal obligations to accommodate and facilitate people while their applications for asylum are being processed.

Ireland has all of these international obligations at a time when we have a crisis in providing resources such as housing, health services, education and social services due to decades of under-investment. All of this creates additional pressure for access to finite resources and when more people arrive into a community, wherever they may come from, the experience of that community is that the pressure for public services increases. A small number of people cynically use people's genuine concerns in order to create division and fear. They also present the new people coming into the area as dangerous and possibly even criminal. However, there is absolutely no substance in any of this. It is fear-driven hate-mongering.

All of us in this Chamber understand the real impact of not having access to a GP when a person is sick and needs care, of paying excessively high rent while waiting years on a housing waiting list or of having a child in school who needs extra assistance but not being able to get that assistance or even to get an assessment. All of these issues were here long before people came to Ireland from Ukraine, or any other country, seeking protection and were created by the refusal of this Government and previous Governments to invest adequately in all of these services. The generosity that has been shown by the vast majority of Irish people to people from Ukraine, Africa, Asia and many other places, is a reflection of that basic instinct within the Irish for fair play and community co-operation but the Government, as the lead actor in all of this, has failed to manage the situation adequately. Thousands of people made offers of rooms in their homes that were never taken up. Hundreds more came forward with proposals to provide larger scale accommodation that has not been utilised. Across Ireland, thousands of employers are looking for people to take up jobs while many of the new people coming to this country are eager to get into employment but the Government has not co-ordinated this opportunity for both, especially in healthcare, hospitality and construction.

The biggest failure of this Government has been its failure to communicate how people are going to be accommodated, how services are going to be provided for them and how communities will be properly resourced to deal with the extra demands generated by new arrivals. We are, of course, critical of the Government but we also have an obligation to humanity to get this situation resolved. We want to see the opportunity that new people coming into this country creates properly utilised to the benefit of everyone. In that regard, the Government needs to establish clear mechanisms for communicating with and resourcing communities, co-ordinating employment opportunities and developing more accommodation for vulnerable people from Ireland and abroad.

I recently spoke to some asylum seekers living in my local community about people coming here without papers because this issue has generated a lot of controversy. I was told that over 40% of genuine refugees in the world leave their country with no papers. They have to leave because they are in danger and they leave without papers. Often they resort to getting false documentation in order to be able to travel. In many jurisdictions, having false documentation is a bigger crime than having none and in that context, they often come here without documentation. That does not mean that there is not a process to deal with them. Indeed, they have the same right to be processed and have their case adjudicated as any other person.

The second issue I raised was that of people coming from what are called "safe" countries, that is, countries where there is no war that we are aware of. However, in many of these so-called safe countries there is conflict, discrimination, human rights abuses and other serious issues. I spoke to a man recently from Nigeria, a country that is often mentioned in this context. He told me that Nigeria has 200 million people. Almost 100 million are Christian and another 100 million are Muslim. There are parts of the country that are 90% one religion and 10% the other and vice versa and all of that creates great strife and difficulties. Those issues have to be dealt with when people come here and, of course, we have a process to deal with them.

In every community, we have to work on this. In my community we have seen large numbers of people being welcomed and accommodated but at the same time this has created some tensions and concerns, particularly around services. We cannot afford to ignore that. We urgently need to elevate the response to these issues. I cannot emphasis this enough. The Government really needs to get its act together, to communicate with people and provide services for everyone in our society, those from Ireland and those who come here from abroad.

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