This is kind of like a repeat speech from when we previously discussed this issue. The motion is erroneous and mean spirited. The real question for the country is where these people are going to go. The options are not there. It would be one thing to say we would do this if the options were there but we are going to be throwing tens of thousands of people into a situation where there are very few options. In many cases, there will be no options. As we all know, the private rental market is a mess. It is not going to be feasible or possible for these people to be accommodated in it. We will obviously be voting against the motion as well as the amendment that has been put down. The temporary protection orders have worked. The only data that we have available, as has previously been said, is from the Irish Red Cross. It shows that they have worked. I do not see why, in the spirit of where we are and after everything we have said about the war in Ukraine, we are actually going to go and take this away now. It is downright hypocritical to do this on the one hand and, on the other, to embrace the Ukrainian President and speak in the manner in which we do. Why are we making this change for something that is pretty low - €600? Why are we deciding that we want to get rid of this and phase it out? We are a non-militarily aligned country. We are a country that does not participate in wars. We are neutral, but we are not neutral when it comes to our views on this war. We have also said quite clearly that we would support the Ukrainian people. In that capacity, surely this is the manner in which we should do it. We need to embrace the fact that many Ukrainians are participating in Irish life and contributing so much here in Ireland in many various ways - economically, socially, educationally, etc. From the perspective of it being the right thing to do, phasing this out now and doing it in this manner is quite mean spirited. It lacks consistency in terms of what the Government is saying about the war in Ukraine. It certainly goes against all available data that we have at this moment in time.

Sentiment score: 0.05