James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This topic is perhaps one of the most difficult issues that has arisen during our current Dáil term, outside of the pandemic. Unfortunately, as a backbench Government TD, it has been very challenging to deal with as regards our constituents. The public perception of how the Government is handling this is incredibly poor. It is something that, on a day-to-day basis, I am growing increasingly concerned about. Threats have been made to Members of the Oireachtas. The level of violence and intimidation that is ongoing, arson and other issues are something that should be a flashing red light in the Cabinet room. I do not think this is being taken as seriously as it should be by members of the Cabinet.

Those who know the situation in my constituency will probably be unsurprised to hear me say what I am saying. Youghal in County Cork, which is my home town, other locations including Fermoy and other towns in my constituency like Mitchelstown, have hosted large numbers of people from Ukraine as well as IPAS refugees who have arrived in recent times. The management of that has not been as fruitful and productive within those communities as it should be in order to make sure that there is balance and that it is being done properly. Often, there is a failure in some quarters of the public discourse to divide between the people who are very malicious in their intent on this issue and those who have legitimate concerns.

It is very understandable to get the appreciation of why there is so much concern about this at a national level, and we have failed to communicate with members of the public. It does need to be tightened up around what the issues are, why Ireland has to do what it is doing, and what policy measures are being taken to ensure that those who arrive into the country are being vetted, as the public will say, when it comes to their documentation, providing PPSN numbers and making sure biometrics are done. It needs to be explained to the public that this is what is going on because the general public I speak to on a day-to-day basis has very little information to reassure it around that. That is something I would ask Government to go and do, and to listen to because I do not think I am being listened to when it comes to my concerns on these issues and those of my constituents at the moment.

I note that we had the Minister for Education here a few moments ago. One thing that I felt would have been very useful for communities that have taken in very large numbers of refugees, Youghal in particular, was the allocation of desk resources for schools in that community. They need the extra provision of supports from the Department of Education. They need extra SNAs and a reduced teacher-pupil ratio with regard to educational supports for their students. Is this being provided at the moment? Unfortunately, it is not. While we have seen some positive measures around the free school meals programme being rolled out to some schools, it is frustrating when it comes to issues that schools face when they are not being given the resources they need.

I am also conscious of people who feel that there is one approach being taken for people who have come into the country having escaped from horrific situations, violence and war, and who are being provided with the full resources of the State, and those who are resident here full-time. There have been so many unnecessary issues that have occurred around that. I will give one prime example. In Youghal, there is a school bus serving the town and because of a funding problem, it is no longer profitable. There was a commercial school bus operation running in the town up until recently, which was withdrawn. However, when it comes to people within the asylum centre there, which I believe is the second biggest in the country outside of City West, they are being provided with that school transport. One might look at something like this as trivial but it is not trivial to the parents involved. With something as simple as that, it is easy for tensions to occur when it is completely unnecessary. That discretionary pot of money that needs to be made available to communities, and particularly to their schools, is something that the Government should desperately look at because it is just not being done.

I was very unhappy with the integration supports that were released through the Department the last time around. I felt they did not go anywhere near far enough to address problems within those areas that have taken large numbers. One of the very much deliverable tasks the Government should take on itself to do is around DEIS provision for those schools, which would be hugely welcome and would make a difference for everybody. That is just one key area. My other message is that there needs to be a national communications campaign done as a matter of absolute urgency to inform the public about how this is being managed and what the numbers actually are. Something that also needs to be communicated is the people who are returning to Ukraine. There have been huge numbers of people who have returned home. Obviously, we have got inbound migrants the whole time but that is something that is not being communicated properly.

I will finish on this point. I am uncomfortable with the centres that were used exclusively for Ukrainians that are now changing purpose, and the complete lack of communication around this. We saw this with the Quality Hotel in Youghal recently. It is unacceptable that this is allowed to continue, where there is no communication with the community leaders and public representatives. We hear hearsay and concern from local communities for weeks upon weeks sometimes but we are not actually told what is going on. What we have in that vacuum is what is occurring in places like Tipperary and east Cork in my own constituency, where there are these meaningless protests taking place, where effectively a huge amount of misinformation is allowed to fill that vacuum. That, to me, is utterly unacceptable and needs to be addressed urgently by the Departments involved.

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