Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the government “do everything we possibly can to avoid and to prevent” Ukrainian refugees sleeping on the street due to housing shortages.
He said there will be a cabinet subcommittee meeting on the matter on Monday to assess accommodation capacity.
Speaking after the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, Martin said: “We are doing everything we possibly can,” reports RTE.
The Taoiseach said all European countries are facing pressure in dealing with Ukrainian refugees.
He added that Russia’s recent attack on civilian and energy infrastructure was designed to create a new wave of migration from Ukraine.
A statement from the Department of Childhood, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth yesterday said that over 58,000 people (42,000 Ukrainians, 16,000 international protection) have arrived in Ireland this year.
This figure compares to 7,250 at this time last year.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said his department continued to be heavily involved in efforts to support Ukrainians coming to Ireland.
He said a long list of properties and sites was drawn up to make buildings and land available.
“After Cabinet met this week, I engaged again with my department and again with the HSE and said ‘let’s take another look,’ reported RTE.
“And I can assure you that the HSE has already looked extensively at its estates portfolio, it’s looked at the land, it’s looked at the buildings and assessed what is usable now, what might require a bit of work to be upgraded. All of the Government must work, my department, the HSE, all of the state agencies, all Cabinet must work together to make sure that every single bed, every single piece of property and land we can use must be made available and certainly that’s what I and the Department of Health and the HSE are doing,” Mr Donnelly said, according to RTE.
The minister said that in addition to efforts to find more housing, huge work is underway to provide health support, including initial screenings, vaccination programs, medical cards, access to primary care doctors and more complex care.
The minister was speaking at Galway University Hospital where he has officially opened a new state-of-the-art cardiothoracic ward.
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said Ireland is facing a refugee crisis unlike anything ever seen before, but moving people away “not an option”.
He was speaking after the Minister for Childhood, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman said the state cannot guarantee that it will be able to accommodate all Ukrainian refugees and applicants for international protection. within the next week due to a capacity problem.
According to RTE, Varadkar acknowledged the capacity problem, saying, “The truth is we are no longer in a position to provide accommodation for everyone who arrives in the country and we need to be honest about that. But we’ll do our best to accommodate as many people as we can. It’s a very difficult situation and we’re in the same boat as pretty much every other country in Europe. We can’t turn our back on these people.”
At the moment the government is still using “a lot of hotel accommodations,” he said, as well as trying to find old buildings and bring them back into use for housing purposes, as well as ensuring communities are supported when they accept people from Ukraine.
“While there’s no limit on the amount of compassion that Irish people have, there is a limit to capacity and at the moment we’re at the point where we just aren’t in a position to guarantee accommodation for everyone who arrives,” reports RTE.
Asked if this means turning people away, he said: “It doesn’t and that’s not something that we can do, aside from being a breach of European law, and aside from the fact that it would be telling neighbouring countries that have shown a lot of solidarity with us that they should deal with the problem. I know some people will say ‘put a cap on arrivals’. That’s not possible as long as we’re members of the European Union,” reports RTE.
Earlier, Mr. O’Gorman said the government is making it clear that it cannot guarantee everyone a housing offer.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said that the most vulnerable will have priority right now.
When asked if there is a danger that people might have to sleep on the street, he said he “can’t rule that out”.
Mr. O’Gorman said they are engaging with the Ukrainian embassy and arguing that there is a strong constraint on capacity, especially in the coming week.
He also said they are working hard to keep the “pause” at entering the new housing as short as possible, but he cannot guarantee that this situation will not reoccur during the winter if the number of arrivals to the country remains high.
There were 881 people in the Citywest Transit Hub overnight and people arriving there this weekend will continue to be treated there in terms of demand under the Temporary Protection Directive.
“We currently don’t have a line of sight on that amount of accommodation and that is why we are letting people know if they have an option, if they are in another EU member state, to either stay there or look to another EU member state, that we can’t guarantee state accommodation into next week,” he said, reported RTE.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney likened the government’s response to hosting Ukrainian refugees and international protection seekers to a “war effort”.
According to RTE, speaking to Co Cork, he said: “This is a war effort effectively from Ireland, responding predominantly to support women and children coming from Ukraine, fleeing a war and horrific experiences and circumstances and that is putting our country and our systems under enormous pressure and this is really coming to a head now.”
The number of Ukrainians arriving in Ireland is around 1,500 per week, twice as many as in August and September, with another 400 applying for international protection weekly.
Some 300 Ukrainians appear to be in tents across the country.
Minister O’Gorman said the tents are of “a higher quality” than those supplied at Gormanston and “more designed for weather events”, adding that they are always trying to find additional and alternative accommodation.
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh said she felt the current system was not robust enough to figure out if people were fleeing war.
Speaking on Today with RTÉ’s Claire Byrne, he said: “We need a proper immigration policy that is worked out with the Refugee Council around that, as to who comes into the country and to make sure that people are coming in for the right reasons, or the wrong reasons as you might say,” reported RTE.
She accused the government of “lack of planning” and said it would be a “appalling situation” if the refugees slept on the streets.
Speaking on the same agenda, Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan said the government is “doing a huge amount” to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, but there are limits to what the state can
He said that Ireland has taken in 55,000 Ukrainian refugees, and while Ireland was predicted to take in 200,000, he does not think this is feasible.
“There was never any reality to this country being able to accommodate 200,000 refugees, that is my own opinion on it. We’ve done our bit in terms of what other European countries have asked us to do and what we should be doing, but I think we need to recognise that there are limits on what the State can do. The Government at present… I think one in four hotel rooms are being provided for refugees. Hostels are being provided, guest houses, pledged accommodation, sports stadiums, sports facilities, so the Government’s doing a huge amount, but obviously it’s an enormous challenge,” he said, reported RTE.
Irish Refugee Council Chief Executive Nick Henderson said it was unclear where the new entrants to the country would go as Citywest had suspended their recruitment.
“It was already too crowded, there were twice as many people compared to the beds.”
Henderson said the government has indicated that people will, in fact, be detained at the airport.
Henderson said the Children’s Department highlighted the work they’ve done to find housing, “but they themselves have warned of this precipice for many months,” reported RTE.
He added that there will be a significant deficit by the end of the year.
Rosslare Port Friends of Ukraine President Sean Boyce said a “consistent lack of planning” and a “naive approach” prevented the state from guaranteeing housing.
He said the 4,500 Ukrainians who have come to Rosslare so far have been housed locally or across the country.
He said that every person who arrives here is vulnerable, having fled a war-torn country, and wondered what would happen now if the state’s accommodative capacity were achieved.
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