Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to welcome Cara and the Darmody family. I congratulate her and wish her all the best with her examination. She is a very brave young girl and I say fair play to her for doing the junior certificate maths paper.

I wish to mention the offers of support and accommodation made by members of the public to Ukrainians who are coming into the country. Recently I have had a number of calls from residents, especially in the Limerick area, who told me that they had received a text or acknowledgement of their offer of accommodation but heard nothing since. The Irish Red Cross is involved but people do not know whether local authorities or who else are involved in providing support. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on how we can move this matter forward because there is a lot of confusion among people. People were so good to offer support and I understand that the offers were overwhelming but now we must tell the people who made the offers what is happening and update them.

I have received communications from a number of people in the Caherconlish area of Limerick as it has been announced that the postmistress will retire on 4 June and the local people will be left with no post office. An Post has advertised the post but nobody has come forward to date. Caherconlish may be an outlying village but its population is growing. The village has a shop, a petrol station, one or two pubs and a community centre. The post office is vitally important especially for older people in terms of meeting their neighbours and collecting their pensions on a weekly basis. I ask the Leader to raise the issue with the relevant Minister.