Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad to have the opportunity to speak to this very important issue. It is so important that this House recognises the enormous tragedy that has befallen the people of Ukraine. If we lived forever, it would be hard to understand man's inhumanity to man, when one thinks about what this means to people on a human level. Over the past number of months, I have been accommodating families who have come from Ukraine. I have met them first hand, after they arrived. I meet moms, dads and children and see what they come with. It is literally a couple of bags.

These people had houses and accommodation, whether it was their own or they were renting. They were being educated. They had everything. They were living life in a normal way and, all of a sudden, everything came falling down around them. They land here with whatever they are able to carry. There is nothing coming after them. There is no van or jeep. It is their two hands and whatever they are carrying. That is enormously sad. Yes, the Irish people have done an awful lot in opening up and, yes, it has caused controversy in that people ask how we will have housing for everybody.

However, if one isolates that issue on its own and the inhumanity of people being literally blown out of their homes, lives, jobs and away from the rest of their family, on a human level, it is absolutely devastating. Whether it is to Ireland, England or wherever in Europe or the world they have gone to, is it not awful to think that the actions of one man can result in that type of awfulness and upheaval in their lives? It is one thing that any one of us would have to stop to think about. How would we feel tomorrow, if we had to leave everything that we had here and go somewhere else with a couple of bags and a few close family members and have to live? Whether it is for a short or long time, who knows? It is right that we acknowledge that here today, debate it and use the political system to talk about how we will address the issue because, with housing, one needs health, education and all the other things.

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