I raise an important issue in respect of the support available to Irish people and families who opened their homes to many Ukrainian refugees who came here as a result of the terrible actions of the Russians. As the Taoiseach knows, the Irish people have never been shy when it comes to supporting those most in need. When the call for support came, Irish people answered in their thousands. In many cases, they even travelled to airports to collect Ukrainian refugees who fled. Over the past weeks, I have had many calls and visits from the families who took in Ukrainian refugees to outline the difficulties that they face. It is important to put on record that those people have not for one minute regretted their decision to take in Ukrainian refugees, and if they had to do it again, they would not hesitate.

The issue people are having is that they feel isolated, with no support. They have very little, if any, contact from the relevant Departments. They feel they have nowhere to go for support and advice. They have no regrets about opening their homes to Ukrainian refugees but they are finding it difficult and financially challenging. They have increased energy and food bills and, on top of this, there are massive hikes in energy prices. When they look for assistance from the Departments, they feel they are being ignored. The commercial hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation are being paid to house Ukrainian refugees. The people who opened their homes to the same refugees are not getting any support.

This is wrong and must be addressed. It is wrong that these people are left isolated without any support or assistance. They were good enough to open their homes at a time of great need but now they feel ignored. They seek support from various Departments and get no response. This morning, President Zelenskyy outlined the support that Ukrainians need right now. We all need to continue to support the Ukrainian people in a time of great need. We also need to support the Irish people who have been good enough to open their homes. In many instances, they and their families have made considerable sacrifices. It is simply not fair that these people receive absolutely no support while hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation receive full support for taking in refugees.

I ask the Taoiseach to assist with this issue and get proper support to the many thousands of Irish people and families who have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees. This morning, the Taoiseach told the Ukrainian president, "our home is your home." Thousands of Irish people have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees. I believe this is the right place for them to be. It is a family atmosphere. Irish people have always put their shoulders to the wheel when needed. Irish people are not complaining and would do this again and again but they are getting no support. They get bills, including electricity bills, pick up Ukrainian children to bring them to school every day, and are looking for nothing. Everything is increasing. All I am asking for is for the Government to help these people the way they helped the Ukrainian refugees.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I salute and commend all those volunteers who are doing so much to help Ukrainian refugees to settle in this country. As I said this morning, "our home is your home". The initial focus of our response has been on accommodation. To date, 19,283 people have arrived from Ukraine. Of these, 11,800 have sought accommodation. There has been a huge effort. We have never had to respond so quickly to such a refugee crisis before. I pay a warm tribute to the public servants, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae did earlier today, who have done exceptional work, working late into the evenings, to secure accommodation for refugees. There are nearly 2,500 children attending our schools so far. I thank the education community. This is war time and this is something we never thought we would experience.

We therefore have been focusing in the initial phase on addressing accommodation. We have much more to do. We are under pressure but we have to get through all the pledges. Significant work is under way. The Deputy referred to hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfast accommodation, the accommodation pledge by the public, State-owned or private properties which may be suitable for short-term accommodation, religious properties, local authority facilities and so on. All of that is being worked on as we speak and has to be where we direct energy right now.

Income support is immediately available from the Department of Social Protection once refugees come into the country, under the European Union's temporary protection directive. Health services are also being provided for the families who have arrived in the country. That has been our immediate focus.

We are establishing community response forums in each local authority to co-ordinate local responses to the Ukraine crisis. That forum will bring together all of the community and voluntary organisations which are active locally, as well as the mayor or cathaoirleach of each local authority. These local forums are best placed to put arrangements in place to help the new arrivals from Ukraine to access services. We believe these forums are an important part of what the Deputy has articulated with regard to providing supports on the ground for families, to enable them to integrate in our society more effectively. We are asking local authorities to take a leadership role in those community forums to enable people to come together to provide additional supports and services at that local level. We are witnessing this all over the country. Communities are responding in that way and we appreciate that.

I said it before that we cannot put a price on a family atmosphere. These families are not looking for profit, they are simply looking for support for the extra costs that they have incurred. While I appreciate the Taoiseach’s reply, he never once mentioned the people. These people went up to Dublin Airport, they collected these families and they took them back in good faith. Now they realise that there is a serious cost there. Many of these families have children and family of their own. With ESB bills, electricity bills and all of these bills rising, all they are doing is looking for a bit of help.

The Government is quick enough to pay the hotels. It is quick enough to pay the bed and breakfasts. They are not looking for a profit. On social protection, I acknowledge that these refugees are getting social welfare, which is fine, but they need they need that money for themselves, for shoes and clothes for their own family.

There is goodwill here and Ireland has been good. The Taoiseach said to President Zelenksyy this morning that, “Our home is your home”. These families are saying, “Our homes are the refugees’ homes”. They thought this war would last maybe four or five weeks. Now all of a sudden it might go on for two more weeks or six more weeks. The families do not know. Not one family who came to me said that they would change their mind, but they need help. They cannot afford to pay the bills. The last thing they want to do is have a conflict between them-----

Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta. The Taoiseach to respond.

Ireland is doing very well with Ukraine. I ask the Taoiseach please not to put a dampener on it.

I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from, but I make the point that, as I said, the hotels, the guest houses and all those facilities are essential. You cannot put hundreds or thousands of people into accommodation without resourcing that. We are very appreciative of the voluntary pledges that came in. More work is needed in the first instance to go through those pledges as quickly as we possibly can to identify what is suitable to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.

I can talk at great length with the Deputy about his experiences and the people to whom he has spoken. I believe that the people who drove to the airport did that out of the goodness of their heart. I have no doubt about that and they are anxious to help in the first instance.

We have to make it very clear that the reason all of this is being done is to deny Putin any sense that the West is under pressure. Unfortunately, in modern wars the likes of Putin count on hybrid warfare and on creating as much pressure through migration as they possibly can.

The Taoiseach is out of time.

We saw that in Belarus last year when it put pressure on Lithuania, Poland and other countries-----

We are over time. We will move on to the final question. I call the Rural Independent Group.