Ukrainian accommodation in Thurles
Deputy Cahill raised pressure on GP, school and other services in Thurles as Ukrainian families are placed in modular units. The Tánaiste said Ireland is responding to a large humanitarian displacement and must do the best it can on accommodation and services.
Thurles is one of the towns that has been chosen for the settlement of Ukrainians in modular units. I raise the issue of the services needed in the town so that we can properly accommodate our new occupants. GP services in the town at the moment are under extreme pressure. We have no primary school in the town with DEIS status and only one such post-primary school. I have raised these issues with the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, and he said it is the responsibility of other Departments to provide these services.
When the Ukrainians come to the town, and they will be most welcome in Thurles, we need the proper back-up services in place before they arrive, so the GP services are able to cater for them and our education system is able to provide the proper education for them, without putting anyone else at a disadvantage. It is essential that those resources are put in place for education and GP services to cater for the extra inhabitants.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. I appreciate the Deputy's sincerity in this matter. We should not forget that we are experiencing war in Europe. For the first time in nearly a century, we see the horrors of a war of this scale on our Continent. Some 5 million people have had to leave Ukraine, and roughly 1% of those have had to come to Ireland.
That is 50,000 people, however, which is a lot of people. Our response is never going to be perfect. We can just do our best, provide the best accommodation we can and provide the best public services we can, and, crucially, provide access to education and to the labour market so Ukrainians who come here are able to work, as I know a lot have already. I know a lot of communities, particularly in the north inner-city of Dublin and also in some rural parts of Ireland, have accepted a lot of Ukrainians and have welcomed them. It is important that those communities who have welcomed people from Ukraine should be assisted and rewarded for doing so, and that is certainly the intention of Government. The response is going to be imperfect. This is the first time we have seen a refugee crisis like this affect Ireland and it is never going to be perfect, unfortunately.