Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2022
70. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will provide an update on the engagement by her Department regarding the arrival of Ukrainian refugees; the role her Department will play in responding to the crisis at Governmental level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17897/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI ask the Minister of State about the engagement his Department has had on the arrival of the Ukrainian refugees. I ask him to outline the engagement he has had to date and the role his Department will play in supporting the refugees who have come here and who will come here in the coming weeks.
As the Deputy is probably aware, Government is working to ensure that local capacity, resources and knowledge are brought to bear on the overall humanitarian response to people fleeing Ukraine and seeking protection in Ireland. My Department's key focus is to ensure the resources, skills and capacity of the local development, community development and charity sectors are utilised to maximum effect to help address the challenges arising.
Building on structures developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, community response forums are being repurposed in each local authority area. The role of each forum will be to co-ordinate the community-led response in the provision of assistance and support to Ukrainian refugees as they are accommodated around the country. My Department has worked with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the County and City Management Association, CCMA, to agree a framework for the community response to guide that work. The framework sets out a national template for arrangements to be put in place in each area to enable all involved at a local level, including the community and voluntary sector, to work together to support the integration of Ukrainian refugees into our communities under the stewardship of the local authorities.
At national level, my Department, together with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, will work with the CCMA and the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, to provide guidance and ensure consistent communication. The senior officials' group on the humanitarian impact of the Ukraine crisis, on which my Department is represented, will also play a role in this regard. With regard to its programme of work, my Department has committed to enabling flexibility in programme delivery to maximise the effectiveness of our response. This has been communicated to our business delivery partners, including local development companies, LCDCs, volunteer centres, community volunteers and public participation networks. I want to express my thanks and acknowledge the fast, flexible and human response of the community and voluntary sector on the ground in every community across the country over the last five to six weeks. It has been exceptional and these community response forums will help to bridge that gap between the public goodwill and central Government's response over the coming months.
It is important that we recognise the effort that has been made by the community and voluntary sector and by ordinary people in communities across the State who have come together to prepare buildings and welcome the Ukrainian refugees. I have seen it in my constituency. Roscommon Lions Club, along with Roscommon County Council and other volunteers, came together to work on what was formerly the Cuisle Accessible Holiday Resort in Donamon, which has welcomed refugees in recent weeks. A huge effort was put in by the local community to welcome them there. That is important and it is nice to see the community coming together to make that happen. They have done a great job across the State and I had an engagement with the Roscommon Lions Club, which played a big role in Donamon. It is saying that the local authority, the Irish Red Cross and the local agencies need additional funding to support the Ukrainian refugees who are there. Unfortunately, they are in a slightly isolated area in the Cuisle Accessible Holiday Resort so transport, links and practical supports will be needed in the weeks ahead.
I am aware of the project the Deputy mentioned and I hope to visit it at some stage. I am in the process of getting out and about as much as I can, so I can see the level of response and see if there are gaps. We will be working closely with the CCMA, as I said, which will be getting the feedback from the ground up. Now that we have the structures in place we will be getting more consistent feedback from the ground up and that will come through the CCMA to us and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. As a result, we will be in a better position to identify areas where there may be strong cases for additional resources. We will look at the situation directly and we will talk to community response forums via the CCMA. We are also making a point of engaging with the national NGOs. We had a webinar a couple of weeks ago with the bones of 200 community and voluntary groups around the country that fed back on some of the issues on the ground. I hope that over the coming weeks, with the community response forums set up, greater shape will come around the situation.
I also want to ask about vacant properties. This is something that has been raised and been in the ether in recent weeks and the idea of people doing up homes and opening them up for the refugees has been touted. Homes will be needed if buildings like those in Donamon fill up. There are a great number of vacant properties across the State and I wonder if there has been engagement between the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on this? I am thinking of Office of Public Works-owned buildings as well. Has there been any engagement on the use of those buildings? Is the Government looking at bringing those vacant properties back into use for the Ukrainian refugees? That would be a win-win situation when things hopefully get better and those vacant properties are up to a standard as they could potentially be used again.
The search for vacant properties is largely being led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It could well be that the community response forums are taking it to another level in looking at what is happening at a local level as well. I want to say to representatives of community groups who may be listening to the debate that I would appreciate it if they made contact with their local community response forum. We are trying to maximise the available resources, goodwill and effort to make sure everyone is being reached, that we minimise overlap and that we make our collective resources as effective as possible. In that light, it is important that Ukrainian refugees are also directly involved in every community response forum around the country. They are already taking leadership in some areas that I know of. They will add a lot to it and they will make it true and effective if they are included in every forum.
