Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is very important that we are having this session today. I want to start off by saying how proud I am, and I know so many others are, of the enormous humanitarian response by the Irish people. We saw a vote taken in Westminster yesterday that effectively makes it illegal for Ukrainians to arrive in the UK without proper paperwork, with a risk of up to four years in prison. The contrast with Ireland’s response could not be more stark. It is a reflection of what our State and people are capable of when we put our minds to it.

While people in Ireland and our communities have very much opened their arms to refugees fleeing this deadly and horrendous war, the experience on the ground – certainly my experience on the ground – is that there is a very patchy system of joined-up thinking between those who are looking at how we house, how we educate and how we provide financial and health support to those coming here. I accept everything the Minister said in his speech about the work that is being done by his Department. Certainly, my own experience jars with some of that.

I have a number of questions. Firstly, what are the help and resources that we are putting into our schools now for Ukrainians who are coming into our education system? I know one school that is taking in 30 boys over the coming days, which is a large number in the context of the overall numbers in that school. Two miles up the road there is another school that has 17 teachers out today because of Covid – and of course Covid has not gone away. There are very real questions about what psychological, language and other educational supports are going into schools at the moment. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, talking on the radio at 1 p.m. and she said that the numbers are only running into the hundreds with regard to children at the moment. However, in the same interview it was mentioned that a third of those coming into the country are minors. Therefore, there is a real issue of coming to terms with the number of school-going kids who are coming into the country, whether they are getting into the education system and how we are looking after them. Senator Seery Kearney and others said that the trauma they are coming from and that they will only come to terms with now that they are in safety will be enormous.

The second issue is around the co-ordination between the Department of Social Protection, the Minister’s Department and Tusla. Again, I fully accept the Minister set out very detailed work that is going on on the ground. However, I know of a situation last Saturday night where there were 60 people in the convent in Buttevant and there was the very real issue of nobody from IPAS or the Department of Social Protection there to help out.

There is a real issue now about those coming in through places other than Dublin and Rosslare. I am very glad and heartened to hear that a system is being put in place in Rosslare, because I understand as of Monday morning there was chaos there when the Stena ship arrived into the harbour. Credit goes to Stena for offering those free sailings from Cherbourg.

The third issue is housing. As the Minister said, the challenge is enormous. If Ireland eventually receives the 2% of the estimated 10 million Ukrainian refugees, that increase in population is almost the size of Cork city and its suburbs. It is hard to get our heads around that. We absolutely need to make sure that all refugees in this country, those in direct provision and Ukrainians coming in, are housed in dignified and decent conditions. We know refugees will say that they only want to come for a short period of time, but history tells us differently.We need to think about the short term but we also need to think about the longer term with regard to housing.

The response by communities and people throughout this country has been magnificent but this urgent response also requires quick decisions on planning, procurement and the provision of material and services. We know where inflation is at currently and the direction it will go in the coming months. It is important to state, and I feel strange doing so, that this crisis must not provide an opportunity to those who would seek to profiteer from the misery of others and the necessary haste of the Government in having to make decisions. I am not making an argument not to spend, far from it. When we are buying up vacant student accommodation rooms and hotel rooms and other emergency spending that has to take place in this State, the hands of the State must not be tied and we must ensure people are not unnecessarily profiteering from this crisis.