LAST UPDATE | 26 Apr 2022
A NEW CABINET sub-committee in response to the Ukrainian crisis is to be constituted by the government that will focus on the housing of refugees.
The dedicated sub-committee will consist of the three coalition leaders, with senior officials from relevant departments also supporting the work of the committee.
Cabinet committees operate on specific issues relating to government priorities, with Brexit and Covid-19 among the other sub-committees that are in place.
The new group will oversee the government’s response to the crisis in Ukraine, focusing on housing the thousands of refugees arriving in Ireland. The sub-committee will also decide upon key economic responses to the crisis such as energy prices and supply issues.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said the government is preparing to spend around €3 billion in 2023 on welcoming and supporting those arriving from the war-torn country.
McGrath said the “primary focus” of Cabinet discussions today will be accommodation for refugees.
He said ministers will be “looking at all of the options that are available to Government to find accommodation as quickly as possible”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said today that the government will do “everything we possibly can” to provide for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland.
Speaking this morning on his way into a Cabinet meeting, Martin said he had met refugees over the weekend.
“Their gratitude to the kindness of the people of Ireland was heartfelt,” he said.
“This is a horrific war that is having a terrible toll on families and, in a shared humanity, we must do everything we possibly can within our energies and with our resources to do what we can.
“We want this war to end; it should end, because too much life has been lost.”
Around 25,000 Ukrainian refugees have now arrived in the Republic of Ireland, putting pressure on the Government to find housing and accommodation.
Mass and emergency accommodation centres have already started to be used.
Speaking today, Social Democrats housing spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan TD said that there should be “a very strong call’ for the use of holiday homes to assist the crisis.
“There are 62,000 holiday homes in the country, a lot of those underutilised. A cohort of those are rented out on short term letting platforms and are in use over the summer. Another cohort of then are ready to use, they’re in walk in condition and would only be in use for a couple of weeks by the owner,” he told reporters this morning.
“What we should be doing is having a very strong call for those underutilised holiday homes, trying to get them into use and that needs to be accompanied with supports and compensation for wear and tear.”
O’Callaghan said that there had been discussions about a such a payment but that “we’re still waiting for concrete details.
In Census 2016, some 62,148 unoccupied holiday homes were recorded, averaging 2,000 per local authority.
- With reporting by Press Association
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