Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I wish the Minister and the Government well as they lead the national response to this terrible crisis. There is a lot to give us hope when we see the generous response of the Irish people. Many of the Government's measures taken so far will also have people's full support. I will make a number of points. Some may appear to be critical. Some will be more in the vein of praising and urging more of certain things. What I have to say is an attempt to contribute to the discussions we all need to have about which needs we can address and how quickly. We are dealing with the most serious international emergency in any of our lifetimes. Apart from needless death and destruction, it has caused huge international economic upheaval, the displacement of 3 million refugees so far, as we all know, and untold concern, anxiety and indeed grief among Irish people. It is very hard to stay listening to the radio and other media these mornings, though we know we cannot turn our heads away.

As for our response in the Seanad so far, in the four weeks since the invasion began we have had only one hour of debate on Ukraine or anything connected to the crisis, which is regrettable. On 1 March we devoted 90 minutes to discussing the latest in a long line of Amnesty International reports criticising Israel before then turning to have a debate lasting, I think, just 60 minutes, or not much more than that, on Ukraine. It struck me at the time that if the Ukrainian people had a lobby group funded by billionaires working on their behalf, maybe the Seanad would have debated their plight first. In the four weeks since then, we have made Seanad time for statements on the credit union sector, the second such debate this year, a Bill on sea fisheries and an EU motion relating to so-called hate crime.All of these things are important in their own way but I wonder whether some of them could have been deferred. Could we not have found more than one hour over eight full sitting days to debate this critical issue? Most of us here defended the Seanad from its proposed abolition in 2013 but there is a danger sometimes that we show ourselves to be divorced from the concerns of people, which will lead to further and future calls for the Seanad's abolition if we are not careful, although obviously this pales into insignificance compared to the matter before us today.

The Minister gave us the figures regarding the very generous offers to make space available in people's homes or to make homes available to people. It is amazing to think that 80% of those offers involve sharing accommodation. I think the figure is 16,000. This is very much to be commended. All of us are thinking about what we ought to do and what we can do and are having discussions with our families about how we would go about it. Some consideration should be given to making even small payments or stipends available to people who are willing to take refugees into their homes. It is not something I would seek for myself but there are others who would need that and there are others who would be encouraged and facilitated in doing something that is already very generous. The Tánaiste ruled it out last Monday in a tone that suggested that it was out of the question. I do not think Irish people expect to be paid for their generosity but as a gesture of thanks or indeed to help them make preparations, it would not be inappropriate for the State to make some kind of stipend available to people to help them defray initial costs such as new bedding, furnishings, the basic decoration of spare rooms, books and toys for children. Ten thousand refugees are here at present. If we gave €1,000 to every host family for each refugee - means tested if you wish - it would cost a paltry €10 million. It was reported recently that it would cost up to €330 million to accommodate 10,000 refugees in hotels for a full year so I wonder whether this area needs to be reconsidered. I do not think we can justify spending huge amounts of money to put people up in hotels but then expect people to take refugees into their own homes thereby saving the State a fortune without offering them basic assistance. I again stress that this is a good thing for people to do; they should do it anyway. However, the State's response should be more reflective of the contribution people are making. It is also about Government money and how we spend it.

I am very glad to see Poland and its contribution being rightly praised at a time when Poland is often unfairly targeted at EU level. We need to worry seriously about human trafficking. This crisis presents a big opportunity for evil-doers to engage in the trafficking of people for prostitution and other nefarious purposes. We need to really care for those people and get it right in terms of how we welcome, accommodate and integrate those coming to our country. I would be grateful if the Minister could address that issue in whatever way is possible at this point in time.