Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

At weekend, I emailed to every Member of this House a series of photographs of food being served to Ukrainian refugees in hotels. These hotels are being paid substantial sums of money by the State. In addition, the refugees are making a contribution of €70 per adult and €35 per child for food since changes were recently introduced. The photographs that were sent to me are disgusting. The food is presented in a way similar to that in which one would present pigswill. That is the only way I can describe it. There are potatoes in jackets, with lumps of bacon thrown on top of them. There is no sauce of any sort. They are served on polystyrene plates, with plastic knives and forks. The hotels have cutlery. They have plates. Why would they not treat these people as ordinary human beings or in the way they would treat paying guests? That is what they are: paying guests, although the State is funding their position. I ask that we raise this matter with the relevant Minister, and that we get inspectors to go to look at the food that is been served. I understand that some of the hotels do a fantastic job. They publish menus and everything else. Other hotels publish menus and serve absolute muck. We have to put a stop to that.

I want to refer very briefly to President Higgins’ intervention on neutrality at the weekend. It distresses me greatly that prominent leaders who hold positions of authority speak about neutrality without understanding what they are talking about. What is positive neutrality? What is militarily neutral? What is politically neutral? Where do these terms come from? The President's intervention has done one thing: it has raised significant interest in the political discussion on where Ireland will go. The Taoiseach made it very clear yesterday that we will not be going into NATO. That is a positive thing that has come out of all of this-----