Ukraine War

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2023

Thursday, 9 February 2023

Questions (62)

Pauline Tully

Question:

62. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on the modular units for Ukrainian families fleeing the war in their country, including a timeframe for the completion and allocation of those units in County Cavan; if he will provide details of the additional resources and supports being put in place in Cavan in advance of, and in conjunction with, the allocation of those units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6427/23]

Oral answers (6 contributions)

Deputy Pauline Tully

Will the Minister provide an update on the proposed modular units for Ukrainian families fleeing the war in their country, including the timeframe for the completion and allocation of those units in County Cavan? Will he provide details of the additional resources and supports being put in place in Cavan in advance of, and in conjunction with, the allocation of those units?

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February of last year, my Department has continued to work as part of the whole-of-government response, with a focus on meeting the immediate accommodation needs of those fleeing the conflict. To date the State has provided accommodation to more than 55,000 beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive.

In response to the crisis, the Government has sought to provide a range of accommodation solutions in every county in Ireland, including Cavan. As part of this considerable national effort, the Government has approved the construction of 700 rapid-build homes on State-owned land, which will aim to provide accommodation to 2,800 individuals in family units. The Office of Public Works, OPW, is supporting the development of the rapid-build accommodation in conjunction with my Department. The OPW and my Department are currently rolling out the first phase of the programme of rapid-build homes on sites identified in Cork, Cavan, Tipperary, Sligo and Mayo. The installation of some of the homes has begun and this work will continue over the coming months. A comprehensive communications approach has been applied for each of the sites that have been identified for the first phase. The site in Cavan, on OPW land off the Farnham Road, was identified as having capacity for 28 units. It is planned that all works on the Cavan site will be completed at the beginning of April and people will start to move into the homes in mid to late April.

My Department is working with other Departments and agencies on the additional needs that will arise. We work closely with the Department of Health in relation to the healthcare needs of displaced people from Ukraine. The HSE has been notified of the proposed number of residents for each site and the associated potential healthcare needs. The Department of Education has put in place regional education and language teams, REALTs, to help Ukrainian families find schools. If the local school does not have enough places, alternative arrangements will be made to bring children to schools close by. In addition, funding from the €50 million community recognition fund in the Department of Rural and Community Development will be allocated to projects in the local area under the direction of Cavan County Council.

Deputy Pauline Tully

I thank the Minister. A briefing that we received from the Minister and his Department indicated that the rapid-build homes would be in place by the end of last year. Initially the number for Cavan was 60. This was reduced to 28, but that is still 28 additional families. I am concerned that as many hotels that are housing refugees at the moment may not continue to do so past the end of March, there will be more demand for accommodation. Given the level of demand in the housing market, what plans are being put in place to address that issue?

In Cavan there is also considerable demand for preschool places. If children of preschool age arrive into the county, there will not be many places available for them. There is also high demand for secondary school places. I know of one school that already has 100 enrolments above its capacity for next year and that is just one school in the county. That is also happening in other schools, although the problem may reduce as students pick between different schools. Either way, with 28 additional families arriving, we need to ensure the children have school places.

I hear from local resource centres on a regular basis and they are also under pressure to provide services to the community at large and to the refugees that have come to live in the county from Syria and other places. They are lovely people who have integrated well but they need a lot more support.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

In terms of education and the provision of school places at primary or secondary level, I am very grateful to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, for acting rapidly to set up REALTs at education and training board, ETB, level. They are there to identify where there is spare capacity, where schools are under pressure and to match that to the needs of Ukrainian children initially, but also of international protection children. That is a good system that is operating well. The REALTs will be closely linked in with the new arrivals in Cavan and other areas to make sure we can secure school places for them.

In terms of the wider pressures, the Deputy is right that there is a risk that there will be greater pressures on the Ukrainian accommodation front going in to the spring. We have the modular accommodation approach, the new vacant homes scheme, and the refurbished home scheme that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is undertaking. We will have to examine the situation but a lot depends on how many hotels make a decision to revert to their former tourism use.

Deputy Pauline Tully

Does the Minister consider that there is good cross-departmental co-operation on this issue? We need the Department of Education to assist and we need the Department of Health to ensure there are enough GPs to provide services.

We have seen horrific protests outside accommodation centres, which should not be happening. If people want to protest, they should do so outside the gates of Leinster House and not outside the doors of places where vulnerable people are living. There are people out there with genuine concerns. We need to see a lot more co-operation across all Departments to ensure that the necessary services are put in place.

In a past life I was a teacher. I taught students from many different parts of the world. Some of them came to Cavan as refugees. They brought a rich diversity to the classroom, they integrated well and we were able to accommodate them. There has been a huge increase in numbers since then and there must be a commensurate increase in resources to ensure there is the capacity to integrate them into our communities because that is the only way forward. School and education is a great way of doing that.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

I absolutely agree. I have always been upfront in terms of the challenge that the dual crises of Ukrainian and wider migration poses. It is a challenge for the State. Indeed, it is a challenge for all states right now because it puts extra pressure on resources. The Deputy spoke about family resource centres and Tusla, through my Department, has been given an additional allocation to support the response to Ukraine. That can be filtered down to Tusla's front-line services, including family resource centres.

I believe there is good intergovernmental co-operation. The Cabinet committee on Ukraine meets regularly and looks at these various issues. The Department of Education has done very good mapping to identify areas where there is capacity in schools and areas where there is not. Of course, when we are looking for accommodation it is not always possible to mirror that because if there is no hotel accommodation in an area where there is capacity, we are not able to immediately respond to that. We work as closely as we can with the Department of Education to try to align where we are locating Ukrainians with available capacity.