Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I hope Deputy Mattie McGrath will pass on the information he got about repressive regimes to his constituents.

Communities across the State will be welcoming refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere in the coming months. Two things need to be done to help make the changes involved a success. First, there needs to be genuine consultation with community organisations. Suggestions from people active in the community on how things can be done successfully must be listened to and given serious consideration by the State agencies involved. To be clear, I am opposed to giving any one person or group a veto over emergency refugee accommodation, but genuine consultation is vital.

Second, hard-pressed working-class communities must be provided with State investment to ensure that social services, such as medical or childcare services, are not in any way reduced. In fact, the services need to be improved for them as well as for the new arrivals in communities. This is in the interests both of refugees and existing communities alike. Zero ammunition must be provided to anti-immigration agitators on this score. I ask the Taoiseach to reply on the issue of the plans for consultation and investment.

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