I begin by expressing my revulsion, the revulsion of my party and I am sure the revulsion of all of us across the House, at the latest war crime committed by Russia in Ukraine, namely, the bombing of a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol. A picture from that atrocity of a heavily pregnant and bloodied woman being stretchered away from the smouldering ruins of the hospital is on the front pages across the globe today. It should remain burned into all of our brains. This is Putin's Russia, an evil regime that thinks nothing of dropping missiles onto pregnant women, newborn babies and little children.

Yesterday's horror in Mariupol, where the dead are now being buried in mass graves, underscores that we need to do everything we can to help as many people as possible escape the barbarity of Putin. The Irish people have acted with extraordinary generosity in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by this war. Thousands of offers of accommodation have already been made. In schools throughout the country, Ukrainian children have already started to attend classes. I acknowledge that the State has acted quickly and with speed for what can often be lengthy bureaucratic processes, be they in residency rights, the issuing of personal public service, PPS, numbers and healthcare entitlements. However, the State will have to do more than merely extend the right to use services to Ukrainian refugees. It must adequately resource those services to cater for the increased demands and increasing need of those experiencing them.

We know, for example, the childcare system in Ireland is at breaking point with waiting lists of 12 months or more in some areas. We also know that for those parents lucky enough to find a childcare place, the costs are equivalent to a second mortgage. The healthcare services are also under unprecedented pressure. Almost 1 million people are currently on public hospital waiting lists waiting to be treated or assessed, nearly 100,000 of whom are children. Disability services are also in crisis. In December, the Ombudsman for Children heavily criticised the Government for its failure to provide assessments for thousands of children. Not only is the State failing to provide adequate services, it is even failing to assess what services children currently need. Meanwhile, we all know that in the midst of a catastrophic housing crisis, more than 9,000 people are now in emergency accommodation, including more than 2,500 children.

When the Ukrainian people come to Ireland seeking refuge and as we open our doors, we must ensure they are able to access the services they are not only entitled to but that they will need. What additional resources, and please be specific, will be provided to childcare services, to education to meet the trauma being experienced by these children as they go into our schools, to the health service, and to the housing services to ensure the entitlements can be delivered upon and the need will be met?

I fully agree with and support Deputy Gannon when he spoke about calling it out, and especially when yesterday we saw the maternity hospital being bombed. There are no words to express the shock and horror of the images we see on the front pages of our newspapers this morning. Our Government is, on behalf of the Irish people, standing up. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, has been active in New York this week. We have led the call for the establishment of an investigation by the International Criminal Court to look at such instances. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and our ambassador at the United Nations General Assembly, where we have a critically important place on the UN Security Council and on the United Nations Human Rights Council, are standing up as a voice for those nations that have been attacked. We will continue to do that.

Deputy Gannon rightly puts the question on what we can do here at home. The issue of how we manage the influx of young children who will come in is critical. I will share one personal experience. A number of years ago I was very fortunate to be brought by Human Appeal, an Irish Islamic charity, to a town called Reyhanlı on the Syria-Turkey border and the city of Antakya, or Antioch. I saw there at first hand how they managed with very similar circumstances. At that time there was the bombing and the destruction of Aleppo, and they were seeing very similar circumstances with people fleeing. I saw at first hand how they coped with and managed that. It provides us with a lesson. They engaged with the Syrians.

We need to engage with the Ukrainian minister for education, who I believe is talking to our Minister, and the Teaching Council is looking to see how we could employ some of the Ukrainian teachers who are coming here, how quickly we could establish classes that would give them flexibility in maintaining the Ukrainian curriculum, or how we could work with our Polish and other colleagues to ensure there is connection between how they are taught in the first number of weeks they may be there before they come to Ireland. It is a matter of involving the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian ambassador, which I am confident we will be able to do, to make sure we can provide the best education and welcome for those children for whatever time they are here. That is our first duty.

Yes, we have a voice on the UN Security Council, and, yes, we have sent humanitarian support. Ireland does not send military offensive weapons. What we can be good at and what we should stand up for in the UN Security Council and in the classrooms we will have to set up is looking after those children in particular as a sign of where our support stands and how our moral outrage at what is happening turns to effect.

Many of the ideas the Minister has suggested are welcome. They are good ideas. In the first instance, as the Ukrainian people arrive here we need to recognise the trauma they have experienced. That needs to be met first.

The idea of employing Ukrainian teachers has a lot of merit. The people coming over here are going to be looking at their cities under siege, maternity hospitals being struck with missiles and their husbands left with AK-47s in their hands. In addition to wanting to employ them, I want to ensure their emotional needs are met. How much will be put into counselling services? Will we have trauma-informed education services in order that these children can receive counselling when they arrive in our schools? Our systems are already stressed.

Many people are currently in Poland seeking sanctuary. Could we perhaps send buses to bring people who are in search of sanctuary and refuge here? What active measures are we going to take in that regard? For example, housing needs will be acute. There is a chronic lack of properties at the moment. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has said emergency planning powers may be used to build modular housing. When is that building likely to commence? Is there a plan or a roadmap? I appreciate that this could not happen on day one but now, three weeks into the siege, where are we in terms of an actual plan?

As I said, we are going to have to act with real speed. In some instances, that will require the likes of modular housing and applying different rules from what we would ordinarily apply in the planning system. My understanding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and from Cabinet discussions is that we are looking at those sorts of emergency measures to allow us to build modular housing outside the normal planning process. On the more immediate issues, the Deputy is right. Assessments and health supports for arriving Ukrainian citizens, particularly those who have suffered incredibly traumatic experiences, are critical. There is now a welcoming committee in Dublin Airport, which deals with a series of public health services, the provision of social welfare numbers, the provision of food and water and the organisation of shelter. Two thirds of the people arriving are staying with friends and family, which is very welcome because that gives them some secure succour and support. We will have to go further. As the children move into schools, the services of the National Educational Psychological Service will need to be applied. We must match the services we have, particularly in support of lone parents, of whom we may see a large number coming with children, and match our social security system, which has that expertise, to this new community that is arriving.