Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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296. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when provision will be made for resettlement workers within each local authority area; if it is proposed to establish a single point of contact for persons newly arrived in Ireland due to the war waged on Ukraine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15654/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Community fora are being established in each local authority area as the means of coordinating support from public bodies, community groups and volunteers to support Ukrainian refugees in each county. Their role will be to coordinate the identification of refugee needs and to link them to key services in each local authority area.

Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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297. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if persons that are recently Garda vetted could be offered the roles that are currently required to assist in the aid and reception of Ukrainian persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15734/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Government has worked with the Red Cross on the logistics to put in place a national pledge. The website has been launched and is available online through registerofpledges.redcross.ie. There has already been a remarkable response by the public – already there have been over 20,000 pledges received.

The Department is working closely with An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice, Tusla and the Irish Red Cross on arrangements for vetting. Persons offering rooms in their houses to Ukrainian refugees will be vetted so as to ensure the safety of all, particularly as many of the refugees are children.

Those who have been vetted are free to offer support to Ukrainian refugees, either in the form of accommodation through the national pledge, or through community initiatives. Those wishing to provide such support to refugees should contact the Community Fora in their counties as these are the mechanisms which are coordinating community initiatives in each county.