Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator Ahearn, for bringing in Ms Cara Darmody to shine a light on the brilliance of children who have autism. I say well done to Senator Ahearn and Ms Darmody.

This week a site notice has gone up in the Laytown area regarding temporary planning permission for a period of five years for the development of an emergency temporary accommodation campsite on a site of 15.8 ha near the Laytown train station. The development will consist of 569 two-bedroom single-storey homes. This emergency accommodation campsite will house around 2,300 Ukrainian refugees in a village with a population of only a couple of thousand people. Needless to say, the plans have raised a few eyebrows and it does not sit easy with me. I am 100% against the development of any more direct provision-style housing or camps. I believe that an even spread of refugee intake according to the ability of a local area to adequately care for them is the best way forward. The development seems to be a solution born of convenience and is not for the Ukrainian people who find themselves here but for the Government, which wants to keep them all in one spot to make it easier to deal with them. Last week or a few weeks ago, I asked in this House for a centralised response to the crisis but I did not mean that we had to centralise the people themselves.

Under delivering is a natural result of over promising. The Government’s policy of an uncapped intake of people fleeing the Russian invasion will result in reduced quality care and services for those who end up in this country. Ireland must do all that it can to help but we must have a serious conversation on how far we can go. We owe it to the refugees that we have taken in to treat them properly and putting thousands of them into a custom-built segregated site falls short of that.

All that being said, if the Government insists on pursuing this course of action, then it should throw up a few more temporary houses for every person in direct provision. If we are going to pay the fixed costs anyway, then we might as well make a few more units and treat all of our refugees equally.

There is a 150-acre site at Thornton Hall in north County Dublin. The State paid €30 million for the site but it is being rented out for €200 a month. Surely to God one does not need to be a genius to come up with solutions and find ways to build sustainable, long-term housing for people who need it, not only for refugees but people on the social housing lists and people who seek affordable housing. The Government has a site that is ready for people to build a small town on. I recommend that that is done as I firmly believe that practical solutions need practical ideas.