Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The enactment of Rishi Sunak's Rwanda Bill has put huge pressure on counties in the Border area. It has added to fear and anxiety for the migrant community. Many in Britain are seeing that migrating to Northern Ireland may now be their best option. This has manifested itself in many pressures here in the South.

Perhaps one manifestation of the problems we have seen in the past 48 hours has been at Phoenix House, which is a very large building in Shannon in County Clare housing 200 refugees. On Monday, letters were issued to all Ukrainian war refugees there to say they need to be out in two weeks and will be moved to Lisdoonvarna. Most of these people are working in factories and companies in Shannon. They have kids enrolled in schools. This is devastating. Instead of a community saying it does not want them, we actually have a community inundating Councillor David Griffin and I with messages saying these people work in the community, their children are being schooled in local schools and the community wants to keep them there. We have trade unions, locals and activists all telling us it is illogical to take them out of Phoenix House in Shannon and move them 60 km up the road. May I add that when they do move 60 km up the road, with them goes the employment. They will be on social welfare at that point because they will be in Lisdoonvarna, where there is no centre of employment. Can the Taoiseach please put eyes on this? Can he and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, please intervene in this? It makes sense to keep them in Phoenix House rather than moving children, women and families 60 km up the road and discommoding them entirely. The community is very much speaking in unison to Councillor David Griffin and I on this matter.

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