Members of the Polish community, along with workmates and friends of four Polish men killed in a car crash in Co Cork at the weekend, have begun fundraising to help pay for the cost of transporting their bodies home to Poland for burial.
Grace Gliwinska, a director of a company involved in the recruitment of Polish workers in the Cork area, told how some of the families of the four men killed in the crash were having difficulty paying to have the bodies of their loved ones brought home.
"Basically, the cost of transporting the bodies back to Poland is €2,000 per person.
"Some of the families don't have this money, so we have asked the priests in the churches to help us collect the money for the families. At this stage, we have collected over €5,500," she said.
Ms Gliwinska said the €2,000 amounted to about 10 months' wages back in Poland, and was beyond the means of many Poles. She said friends of the dead men had contacted the Polish embassy in Dublin and asked for assistance but were told that the cost of transportation was a matter for the families of the deceased.
Contacted by The Irish Times, Nicola Sekowska of the Polish embassy said the embassy did not have the funds to pay for the transportation home of the remains of Polish nationals who, on average, are dying at the rate of three a week in Ireland.
"Please understand, it's not that we have the funds and don't want to use them - it's that we just don't have the funds to do that," said Ms Sekowska.
She added that the three deaths a week figure includes many who die from natural causes as well as those killed in accidents.
"Often what happens is that the employer kindly co-operates - they pay for the transportation costs, particularly if the person has been working for them for some time. "It's possible that this will happen in this case. One employer has already been in contact with us."
Staff and management at Winthrop Engineering, Carey Tool Hire and Statoil in Ballincollig, where three of the four men worked and all of them lived, have also contributed, as have Poles attending a special Mass in Cork city and locals attending Masses in Ballincollig.
Anyone wishing to make a donation may do so at the Bank of Ireland in Ballincollig, branch code 90 26 45, account number 10367885.
