Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for the opportunity to speak on this matter. Ireland is signed up under different protocols to take in a certain number of refugees every year and we are doing that. In fairness to the Irish people, when the war in Ukraine broke out, they opened their doors everywhere as has been pointed out by Deputy Tóibín. The Irish Red Cross made a hames of it, to be quite frank, because the rooms offered were not used. However, we need to talk about certain things and be open and frank about it. There are 13,000 people homeless in this country at the moment. Why did we not, four or five years ago, decide to build modular homes for these people and try to help them in some way? I know the instances have decreased at the moment of this but If I go to any part of the world today, I am not allowed to enter without a passport; there are not ifs or buts about that. We need to make sure we put an onus back where it should be. We need a solution to that. It is not the person's fault who is coming. I am not blaming them, because many of these people are very vulnerable. However, what do we do? What is the solution? We have enough technology at the moment that if you go into an airport and have to show your passport, there should be a photocopier that would take a copy of every part of it. Let the planes hold a copy of every passport so that if there is any query, we would have it. However, we do not seem to want to do it. The Irish people open their doors. They have seen a lot of this down through the years themselves but there is a reality here as well. Whether people like this or not, we cannot have somebody on €230 per week getting food and a bed; having someone from Syria getting €30, a bed, and food; some people, who are not getting the €230, working somewhere but still getting food; and an Irish person not being able to get accommodation. You have to put everyone on a level playing field to make sure we treat them right. Then the problem arises about the consultation and we see it in every part of the country. We never learn in this country. We tell no one and it is like a bolt out of the blue. We might get an email and that will be the first we will hear of 200, 100, 50, or 20 people coming to a place and no one knows about it-----

See this speech in context