Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, to the House and commend my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney, for preparing and leading on this motion, which is extremely important. I also acknowledge the work she has done for surrogate mothers and for Irish citizens born in Ukraine and their mothers. A lot has been done but a lot more can, and should, be done. This motion is very timely and very important. In Clare, we have not far off 2,000 Ukrainian residents. Of the 13,500 who are in the country, nearly 2,000 are in Clare. Of those 2,000, not far off 1,000 are living in north Clare between Lisdoonvarna, Ballyvaughan, Lahinch and Liscannor and down along the coast in Kilkee. They have all come from very difficult backgrounds, having had to flee their homes and country.I have engaged extensively with them over the past ten days and I held a clinic at the hotels in Lisdoonvarna last Monday week. I learned at first hand the many challenges that are there and what the State needs to do to address them. Clearly, the most important challenge, which so far we have been able to accommodate, is to give them somewhere to sleep, a roof over their head, and food. That is very welcome.

I commend the Red Cross on the work it is doing in assisting the State with offers of accommodation. I am advising Ukrainian people to accept accommodation through the Red Cross because at least the State has an involvement in that regard. There is Garda vetting and vulnerable adults will be put in a place which will be safe. Some Ukrainian people are staying with family and friends they know but others have been offered accommodation by people on the street and through social media. While most people are very well-intentioned, there is a risk when the State is not involved.

I encourage all colleagues to meet the Ukrainian citizens who live among us and engage with, listen to and reassure them, as I have been doing. It is a good thing to do and they benefit from the reassurance that they are welcome, they can stay as long as they need to stay and we will support them in every way we can.

When it comes to support, there are a number of things we need to do. The Department of Education has a big body of work to do because there are many Ukrainian children here and they need to go to school. This Department needs to appoint an on-the-ground liaison officer in each county and that officer needs to have broad discretionary powers to allocate children to schools and to engage with transport providers to sort out transport. In Kilshanny in County Clare, a bus operator provided a bus for a couple of days but that is not sustainable. The Department of Education needs to have boots on the ground to deal with the education requirements, including the requirement of schools to have Ukrainian teachers who can do translation work. All of those types of issues would be expedited and addressed more efficiently if officials were on the ground, on-site and engaging with people. All Ukrainian children need to go to school and they need the normality that going to school presents.

Transport is a big problem. Many of the Ukrainians here have Ukrainian driving licences but these are not recognised in this country. We were told by Ministers last week that this requires a European response through the Commissioner for Transport, discussions were ongoing and so on. Other European countries have sidestepped that process and are recognising Ukrainian driving licences. I want the Government to do the same and recognise these driving licences. Many of these people living in hotels in small rural villages. They come from cities and need to be able to go out and about and do their business.

Public transport in rural Ireland is an issue I raised long before the Ukrainian crisis. To travel by bus from Ballyvaughan to Galway city costs €28 return. That is not acceptable or sustainable for a family of Ukrainians who wish to go to Galway to do a day’s shopping. An urgent Government response is needed to make public transport affordable for the Ukrainian community. We also need to address this matter in the long term. Why should a young person have to pay that type of money to go from Ballyvaughan to Galway city when one can travel from Maynooth into Dublin for a fraction of that cost. There is an inequality and inequity there that needs to be addressed but we need an urgent response for the Ukrainian people now.

In respect of agencies, the local authority needs to be leading the multi-agency response at a local level with very defined roles. A reporting structure also needs to be built as a matter of urgency. Large numbers of Ukrainian interpreters are needed and must be hired. There are people in the Ukrainian community who speak very good English and would be well able to interpret for their fellow citizens at medical appointments, in school and so on. There are many practical steps we can take to get quick wins. Some of the long-term issues, such as education, recognising qualifications and facilitating people to continue their third level studies, are more complicated and will take more time. As a Government and a nation, can we get the easy wins done now? Can the driver licences be sorted out as quickly as possible? Can we get boots from the Department of Education on the ground in schools? We can and should do these things in days.