Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am calling for a debate to be scheduled on the setting of minimum standards for the Government's response to problems and situations regarding the care of people in this country. Last week we heard that when it comes to providing accommodation for migrants and refugees, villages of tents are all we have at the moment. The attitude is one of saying "That is just how it is". That is just how it is because of the decisions of this Government. I spoke last week of the awful conditions in which Ukrainian refugees are living in Stradbally, County Laois, where people were in tents during Storm Agnes and did not even have use of many of the portaloos that were on site. I just do not think this is the way to treat people. I am blue in the face calling for a practical approach to immigration based on recognition of our logistical limits but it seems my philosophy is simply at odds with this Government. Rather than provide an appropriate standard of care to a number of refugees, this Government has chosen to provide an eternally decreasing standard of care to all refugees. It is a worrying approach to adopt. The concern is that this philosophy of compromising without limit when it comes to quality in order to cater without limit will spread to other areas. One thinks of our homeless - the 13,000 homeless - or of the people in receipt of the housing assistance payment, those on the social housing waiting list or those looking for affordable homes to rent or buy. What will it look like if the Government decides to say in dealing with those people that there is no lower limit as to how poor the quality of the response to the problem can be, so long as everyone is responded to? The Government needs to make its philosophy on this clear to the public, whether that means the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, or the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, coming into this Chamber to answer this really important question. We have set the bar so low when it comes to how we deal with our refugees.