I come to speak to this amendment in a slightly different way in terms of my own experience in my home town of Ballaghaderreen. When I was elected to the House in 2020, it was before the war in Ukraine but we had already experienced the arrival of Syrian refugees to begin with. Ballaghaderreen was actually one of the few towns that very much gave the céad míle fáilte and I was very proud that it did. The hotel in the town had been closed for some time. It is not owned locally but that was the accommodation provided and it remains to this day. The real kicker in all of that, and I say this from first-hand experience, is that the resources, the supports and the services that were needed did not follow. The tension that caused could have been totally avoided. I have lost count of the amount of times since 2020 that I have made this point on the floor of the Dáil. I could never understand how the Department of education and the Department of Health in particular could not have come together, looked at Ballaghaderreen and said they could, for example, put an extra nurse in the local health centre twice a week, or they could do X, Y and Z to support a huge increase in population in a town that not only has the highest deprivation rate in County Roscommon but also the highest unemployment rate in County Roscommon, a town that lost so much, particularly in terms of jobs in 2008 and which, to this day, sadly, has not recovered in terms of those numbers. Ballaghaderreen could have been a huge success but it was the Government that let the side down. Had the local services in the area been looked at, it could have been very different. We then had a situation where the Department of justice offered funding in recognition of the town of Ballaghaderreen and what had been done. A fund was announced that would see the development of a childcare facility in the town. At least that was something in terms of acknowledging what the people of Ballaghaderreen had done. That funding from the Department of justice was then pulled. Eventually, the funding was found by the community. Many of us came together and it was found through the community recognition fund at the very last minute. We are still awaiting the childcare facility but I am very glad to say it will open in the coming weeks. The funding was put in place by the Department of justice for a reason, and then it was pulled. When we actually look back in terms of Ballaghaderreen, despite the deprivation rate and huge poverty in the town, there was nothing there to say how we were going to support the town given what the people there had done in hard times and in a welcoming way. There were no threats of violence or nastiness at all, and yet, for me, the people were very much let down. They should not have been because they were one of very few towns not in the position to do it but it did it anyway and gave a céad míle fáilte. The town did it and really had nothing to show for it afterwards. There has to be a lesson in that. As I said, I never understood why heads could have not been brought around the table locally to determine what is needed to support an increase in population. It did not matter if it was 200 people from Dublin or 200 people from anywhere else. An increase in population meant huge stress and pressure on local services. That was always obvious but that is how the town was left. That should not have happened. The saddest thing of all is that we have so many wonderful families in Ballaghaderreen who have been there for generations and who did their bit and played their part. To this day, they still do and the local national school has over 22 nationalities. There is a great sense of community in Ballaghaderreen altogether but the Government let it down. There need to be lessons learned about that.

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