Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was young on that fateful day in 1981 and I remember it. It is beyond belief that we are here all these decades later and that we are only now reaching the truth of what occurred. Hopefully we will find it in a while. The devastation for the families and the lack of a sense of justice for their loved ones must be truly awful. I welcome this legislation and the work of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and Senator Boylan, to bring forward the issues and to get a response. A whole generation of parents was devastated and lived with the horror and the potential of what could happen.As a young girl going out, I had to reassure my mother that I would always check the exits wherever I was going. The trauma for a whole nation at the time was quite considerable.

I welcome these provisions. It is a comprehensive Bill, not only now for Ukrainians but also as a template for how we will always address but, hopefully, will never have to re-engage the temporary protection directive. Hopefully, nothing will escalate to another country.

Yesterday, we attended the national commemoration event. As I sat there, I thought about the families I have met and have talked to who heard the sirens, went to their bunkers with whatever possessions they could carry and came back to find nothing there and who are now living in Ireland. In some instances, those are families with children with additional needs or with disabilities who came without even the requirements to support that child in their homes. I am proud of our response to them. I am proud of what we are doing. It is right that we do so because there are people in Ukraine today fighting on the front line upholding a democracy and the right to autonomy of a country. We should be respectful and grateful of that. It is not only them. There are many other such countries. There are people in direct provision here who also require a similar response from us.

I am mindful of making sure that groups I know in Dublin receive the benefit of the back-to-school allowance and have access to it for making sure their children go back in September supported and equipped. Many of the schools are organising this, but I wish to make sure that every child going through the door feels equal to and as cared for as their fellow classmates.

I echo Senator Ward's comments regarding the importance of professional recognition. I also have spoken with women who have childcare competencies and experience and in an environment where we are desperate for people working in childcare, it would be fantastic if we could do a move on that also.

One concern before the schools broke up was that sometimes families could be relocated at reasonably short notice with children who left a country urgently and settled into a school here finding themselves having to move from that school for what I appreciate is more permanent accommodation. However, we need to handle the communication of that better. It is quite possible that the Minister has addressed this. I am mindful that it is now July. In fairness, there may be ways of addressing that. I ask the Minister to consider that experience of the child making sure that when they are going in strangely making friends and feeling some sense of safety, we hold on to that as much as we possibly can.

Lastly, I commend the work of the Ukrainian community centre in Vicar Street. They are working well with the Red Cross. They have been doing extraordinary work there.