Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the supports that are being put in place by his Department to help persons who are displaced by the war in Ukraine to integrate in Ireland. [28270/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, and the invoking of the Temporary Protection Directive by the European Union shortly afterwards, my Department has worked intensively as part of the cross-governmental response to the Ukraine crisis.

My Department is focused on providing immediate, short term accommodation to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. In excess of 23,000 people have been referred to my Department for accommodation to date.

As a country, we have responded well to assist those relocating to Ireland from the conflict in Ukraine, and we will continue to do so.

This is a cross-government response with each Department and relevant agency involved. Supports to those arriving from Ukraine are coordinated at local level by the Community Fora.

Building on structures and relationships which were highly effective during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community Response Fora enables all those involved to work together under the stewardship of the local authority. The role of the Community Response Forum is to provide a co-ordination point for the community and voluntary response in their area. Supplementing the supports and services being provided by government agencies a local level, the fora provide for  communication and information sharing in the coordination of local community and voluntary actions in providing community supports to the new Ukrainian communities.

Through the efforts of local volunteers, community workers, public bodies and private sector contributions, many recent arrivals are being supported with basic needs such as clothing, access to the internet, transport, English classes and information on how to access local services such as childcare, healthcare and education. 

Other areas of my Department are also actively supporting arrivals from Ukraine.

The Early Years Division in my Department has taken responsibility for a number of actions supporting Ukrainian parents and children, allowing them to access preschool and ensuring children’s wellbeing. These actions have included the development and translation of introductory information on the Irish early learning and care sector. A capacity analysis across the country identified vacant preschool places and work is ongoing to match children to the vacant places and to create additional early childhood care and education, ECCE, places, where possible, in areas of high demand. Information on the access and inclusion model for children with disabilities accessing preschool has been translated into Ukrainian and Russian.

Tusla has also put additional staff into its services around educational welfare too in order to support the work of linking students to school places.