Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his presence. We know there is a crisis but I do not know how many times I have come into this Chamber and said that we are reactive more than proactive. Since I represent east Cork, I will specifically stick to east Cork when it comes to Ukrainian families. I do not like to call them refugees because they are not refugees. It is a war-torn conflict, but they are families.

My issue is that I have conflicting reports from volunteers and hotel owners about how these families are being treated. I have heard rumours of four different families being put into one holiday home. I do not know where issues like health and safety and children’s rights are coming into that.

I need to know if any Department, including the Minister’s, has a go-between for me, as a public representative, to go to east Cork and say that I need to meet Mr. or Mrs. X on behalf of concerned local people, Ukrainian families or hotel owners and to whom I can address the issues. We know it is all about the spondulicks. It is all about the money, which is a big issue. We are starting to pit local communities against each other.

There is also an issue where, specifically looking at the likes of Youghal, which is a tourist town, the hotels have been fully booked because of the iron man race coming up and it has caused much conflict. While I understand there is another conflict in Ukraine, there are other locations such as St. Raphael’s Centre, Youghal, which is HSE-owned, so basically Government-owned, and therefore does not cost anything to put families into.

The biggest concern I have from what I am hearing on the ground is period poverty, because many of these people are mothers with children. I have talked to volunteers who are running shops and their biggest outgoing is soaps and shower gels. I cannot get clarity on who is supposed to supply all of these. Obviously, mental health has not been mentioned and all of these families are traumatised. Again, transport is an issue. Many of these are outside Youghal in Redbarn, which I think is about 8 km outside. There is no mention of transport to get the kids into school or get families into shops to even get clothes. The list is endless.

I raise these points because the people who are coming to me are extremely frustrated. I also am extremely frustrated because I am only taking the word of mouth of hotel owners, guest owners or people on the street and I need clarity. I need to be able to go back and say, for example, that from next week or the following week, a Department will have put in place a liaison officer that I, as a public representative and others can approach and raise these issues with and ask whether they have been addressed. I did not want to bring it up here; I do so out of pure frustration. We hear all of the great things that are happening outside of this House but when you go out and see the devil in the detail, many of these people are being mistreated. I cannot even get answers to or proof of what is actually happening to these families.

Finally, there are great volunteers and a fabulous community who have supplied everything from clothing to knitting needles, toiletries, as I mentioned, and pots and pans. Who is responsible for all of these? I find it ironic that people staying in a hotel have to look for soap to wash themselves. Is there a possibility of getting some liaison officer from the Department that others and I can work with in east Cork to get the answers for all the concerned people?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for raising these important issues. As he knows, of the more than 33,000 Ukrainian displaced persons - which is the term I use rather than "refugees", because it is my understanding that is the term they prefer - who have arrived in the country, more than 23,000 are being accommodated by my Department in short-term accommodation. Within my Department, International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, has contracted over 18,000 beds across hotels, hostels, student accommodation, guest houses, bed and breakfast accommodation, commercial self-catering accommodation and other repurposed settings, as well, of course, as accommodation pledged by the public, student accommodation, holiday homes and State-owned or private properties that may be suitable for short-term accommodation. Given the continuing challenge of the numbers of people arriving, sourcing suitable accommodation can continue to be a challenge. In seeking to address the immediate accommodation needs, the safety and security of our displaced persons are the paramount consideration. In light of the continued significant numbers of people coming into the State and the additional numbers that may arrive, my Department is contracting all forms of suitable accommodation in all areas of the country, including in Cork. A dedicated team in my Department is focused on the provision of accommodation to Ukrainian refugees.

My Department is working very closely with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, to identify short-term options to meet the continued demands for accommodation. The CCMA has worked with local authorities to prepare emergency accommodation for use if there are sudden spikes in the numbers arriving. Refugees have been moved into this emergency accommodation at times when the number of arrivals is particularly high.

As of 29 May, my Department has contractual arrangements in place with about 350 accommodation providers. In most instances, these providers either provide in-house catering or subcontract catering services, or vouchers for a local supermarket are provided where appropriate. My Department has a small number of facility management services in place with providers, which can include a catering element. Currently, the Department has secured four accommodation sites in east Cork for displaced persons from Ukraine. As the Deputy will appreciate, the scale of the influx people fleeing the crisis in Ukraine is unprecedented. Unfortunately, mass catering on this scale will not be to everybody's taste or standard.

If individuals feel there are issues with the quality of the food provided, they should raise the matter in the first instance with the provider.

It is important to note much of the accommodation in the east Cork area is self-catering, where people may choose and cook their own food once they are in receipt of social protection payments that they can apply for from the Department of Social Protection. In one specific hotel in east Cork, I am assured a welcome pack is provided to all residents on arrival, including hygiene and sanitary products. Should residents require hygiene and sanitary products in advance of receiving their State payment, my Department has advised accommodation providers to provide the products and that the State will reimburse the costs on evidence of receipt.

From the beginning of the crisis, newly-arrived Ukrainians have been able to avail of free travel from their port of entry to their end destination on any public service obligation or Local Link service. In line with a whole-of-government approach, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and officials in that Department have been looking at bespoke public transport solutions. There are three key elements to this. They are speeding up the rolling out of enhanced Local Link services in parts of the country, where new Local Link services were meant to go in. Some of that is happening earlier. They are also looking at the provision of bespoke public transport services to some of these centres for accommodating Ukrainians that are more isolated. There is also the community transport fund, which is available for people to draw down for specific events.

I advise that the best point of contacts are community fora, which are shared by the local authorities and bring together the statutory and community agencies. These are the fora where specific matters are best raised in the first instance.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for the reply. I welcome the fact we now know there is a point of contact. The Minister mentioned quality of food; my comment was not about quality but quantity. I know the matter has been resolved but there was an issue with a buffet-style system where it was kind of like "stretch or starve". If the people were there in time, they got something to eat, but they did not if they came later. I know that has been dealt with, thanks be to God.

The crux of the problem is that many of these families are isolated from public transport routes etc. They are not totally isolated but there have been massive issues with getting into the local town, as I mentioned, and getting kids to school etc. At least I know now I can follow that up with the transport authority.

I will contact the local authority this week and I might touch base with the Minister again. As I said, this is not about pitting anybody against somebody else. These are isolated incidents but I do not want them to fester. The majority of people in all the communities have been exceptionally welcoming, as I noted. Some of these families have already got jobs, which is amazing, and many of them have very good English. We are a welcoming country. On this side of the House anyway we like to look after everyone, and it is not about colour, class, creed or religion when it comes to people living in this country.

I thank the Minister for his reply and I will follow up with him and his Department to let him know I get on with contacting the local authorities, specifically on the transport question. That seems to be a big issue. As I said, if I do not get a reasonable response from local authorities, I will be back to the Minister again.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. He knows that the desire to look after everybody, irrespective of race, colour or creed, is shared by the Government as well. I am absolutely happy to engage with the Deputy and if there are difficulties, he knows where to find me. He can come have a word. As I stated, the community fora are up and running in counties all over the country and they are a good place to bring together the various statutory agencies.

The Deputy commented about this being all about money. We should remember that in the first instance, it is about providing security and shelter to Ukrainians. In this country we already have an undersupply of housing and we all acknowledge there is a housing crisis. In providing security and shelter to Ukrainians, we cannot rely on existing housing stock and we have had to go to short-term accommodation. We did that conscious that we did not want our response to Ukrainians to in any way interfere with the Government's existing response to the housing crisis. There is a cost to that but we recognise that will be a short-term cost. It may be for a year or perhaps two or three years but it will not be an ongoing cost. It is the best way so we do not put sectors of the community in conflict with each other. It is the right way to go.

As a consequence of all of this, I have always said that our response here is imperfect. This is a wartime issue and we are in the very lucky position that the bombs and shells are not falling in our country. It is nonetheless a major war closer to us than any of us have ever expected in our lifetimes. It will have an impact on every European country, including on what this Government can do in its focus. We must respond because we can see how people are dying every day in Kharkiv and other major Ukrainian cities. Our response to this, imperfect as it is, is nevertheless a recognition that people still feel safer here than they do in their own country, which is a terrible tragedy. We must support Ukrainians in enduring this for as long as the position remains as it is.