GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN been accused of failing to match the effort of people across Ireland in finding accommodation for refugees fleeing Ukraine.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told Taoiseach Micheal Martin that people would be dismayed that some refugees fleeing the war had to sleep on the floor at Dublin Airport.
However, Martin responded by stating the only person who would take solace from Sinn Fein’s attacks on Government policy would be Vladimir Putin.
She labelled Ukrainian refugees being made sleep in Dublin Airport over the weekend as a “disaster”.
McDonald said that the refugee “system was already overwhelmed”, saying that the Government had nine months to put together a plan to tackle the emergency.
The exchanges came after 53 people refugees could not be accommodated over the weekend – 44 Ukrainian, and 9 international protection applicants.
It is understood that the Department of Children contacted those affected and offered accommodation on Monday.
McDonald asked: “How is it that at the same time people’s offers to accommodate refugees are being ignored?
“It seems your approach was to outsource the state’s response, to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
“Not content with denying our own people the right to an affordable secure roof over their heads, you now extend your catastrophic failure to those coming to Ireland seeking humanitarian assistance.
“What are you doing to ensure that offers of accommodation for those fleeing war come onstream quickly?”
Martin criticises McDonald’s commentary
Martin responded: “I think your commentary and some of the debate around this issue in recent days has become somewhat detached from the reality that we find ourselves confronted with.
“The first thing that has to be done is to pay tribute to the extraordinary Irish national effort in response to Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of his neighbour Ukraine.
“More than 55,000 Ukrainians have sought and received refuge in our country. It is one of the highest in the European Union.
“I think we need to be careful of the implications of how this gets articulated.
“The only person I see who would get solace from what you have said and the manner in which you have said it is Putin himself.
“That is what Putin wants to do. He wants to create the impression across Europe that Europe can’t cope with this.
“We have to make sure he does not succeed with that agenda.”
McDonald responded, saying:
“The difficulty is that you have not matched the effort by the Irish people by action from Government.
“The facts are that people arrived, fleeing from Ukraine, and there was nowhere for them to go. They slept in the airport.
“I think we can all agree that is not an acceptable situation. Why are you only cobbling together a plan now?”
The Taoiseach said the Government has never before had to deal with such numbers coming into the country.
“We have said we will do everything we can to accommodate Ukrainians and we have.”
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said: “I think it is fair to say that across Ireland, communities have been dismayed to see people fleeing the brutal war in Ukraine and having to sleep on the floor in Dublin Airport.”
Responding to reporters’ questions about the issue the Taoiseach had with McDonald’s commentary on the matter, a spokesperson for the Taoiseach said the Sinn Féin leader was “combative in her style” when she launched a “cynical attack on the Government’s humanitarian efforts”.
No guarantee
Earlier, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar had said Ireland cannot guarantee accommodation for refugees arriving from Ukraine in the next couple of weeks.
Varadkar said there is “no point in denying” the chronic shortage of accommodation.
“Ireland has done very well as a society – and I don’t mean as a government, I mean as a society – in responding to the Ukraine and refugee crisis,” he said.
“There are over 50,000 Ukrainians now in the country, all must have secure accommodation. There are 12,000 Ukrainian kids now in our schools, 10,000 Ukrainians working, 1,000 studying in our universities.
“In what is a very difficult situation, I think the Irish public and Irish society has responded very well. But we are experiencing a severe accommodation shortage and there is no point in denying that.
“As a country we are not in any way going to resile from our international obligations or resile from European solidarity. But we do need to say to people that if you come here we cannot guarantee you accommodation at the moment, and indeed for the few weeks we can’t guarantee it.
“Cabinet sub-committee met last night. Decisions won’t be signed off for another few days, so there will be a memo produced for Government. We should be able to sign them off formally in the next couple of days.”
Senior government ministers met on Monday night to discuss the accommodation crisis for Ukrainians and refugees arriving in Ireland and measures to address it.
A number of measures, such as housing refugees in army barracks and doubling the payment households receive for taking in Ukrainian refugees to €800 are set to be approved by Cabinet either this week or next.
With reporting by Press Association and Tadgh McNally
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