A refugee support group has said Cabinet discussions this week over the accommodation crisis demonstrate there is a real and serious need for a change of approach.
On Tuesday, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman ran into opposition from Cabinet colleagues over plans drawn up which would limit State-provided accommodation for those newly arriving from Ukraine to just 90 days.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil on Wednesday that the State’s ability to accommodate and provide for refugees and those seeking international protection was “very much” at its limit currently.
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said Ireland had "done amazing things" to support refugees from Ukraine, but there had been "too much of a reliance on emergency accommodation."
Mr Henderson told Newstalk radio that ideas being suggested for medium- and long-term accommodation were good, but the struggle was in terms of scale. “There are ideas around modular homes, rapid build homes, but they need to be scaled up. There is a huge success story in the number of people who are hosting refugees from Ukraine, currently around 14,000 people in host arrangements that can be scaled up as well.”
When asked if he accepted there was a limit on the capacity in Ireland, Mr Henderson said he did. “I accept that there's a limit on capacity using our current accommodation model, which is very completely reliant on hotels and their beds. I don't accept that is the right model though.”
Ireland should be proud of what it is offering people fleeing war, he said. “I think that the perception is different to the international protection process in that from the very beginning, refugees from Ukraine could choose where they would go and that choice would be based on natural language distance from the Ukraine. Some people want to because some people want to be far from the war, and some people may choose where they will get support that would enable them to start a new life. We do have one of the higher rates of social welfare.”
Mr Henderson said the Refugee Council would oppose plans to introduce “tapered support” partly because he thought it was unethical, but also because it was not realistic. “Where would people go after that 90-day period?”
