Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are an outlier in some ways; we are not in others. Lots of countries, particularly in eastern Europe, have taken in many more people from Ukraine than we have, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of their populations. While we have taken in many more people from Ukraine than France has, for example, France would point out how many it has taken in from Syria, Algeria and other parts of the world. We are more reliant on the use of hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation than other countries are, largely because such accommodation was available at the time. Other countries have used barges. We see the camps in France and Belgium and see what is happening alongside the canals in Brussels. Thankfully, we have not had to do what has happened in other countries. We see the containers being used in Greece. I know this is having an impact on local economies, but is it not better that we were able to use hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation than to have people living in containers, like they do in Greece, in camps, like they do in France and Belgium, or on barges, or being sent on planes back to Africa, which is what they propose to do in Britain. I would not like to be in that position.

To come back to my initial response, we accept that a number of tourism towns in particular around the country have been adversely affected. The accommodation providers are getting income, but the bars, restaurants and attractions are losing out. We are developing plans and schemes to help out with that.

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