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

I respectfully disagree. In the past two years, 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing war have come to our country. More than 70,000 of them have been accommodated by the State. There are some 14,000 Ukrainian children in our schools and between 15,000 and 16,000 Ukrainians working in our economy and contributing by paying tax and PRSI. I know it has not been a perfect response but when people look back in ten or 20 years on what we have done as a country, they will be proud of what we have done. That is not to say that it is perfect and yes, it can be improved. Part of the improvement will be the creation of community engagement teams to talk to people on the ground. These will be headed by Ms Eibhlin Byrne, a former Fianna Fáil Lord Mayor of Dublin and someone the Deputy knows well. We will also staff up the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. This was a relatively small Department, with very few staff only a few years ago. It is now a pretty massive Department and it is doing a great job.

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