Minister of State Joe O’Brien has said the Government cannot continue in its current state – “trying to scurry around” to find accommodation for the continuing flow of people fleeing the war in Ukraine to Ireland.
O’Brien told RTÉ Radio’s News at One that, to his knowledge, a draft memo had been proposed. “I haven’t seen the specifics that’s in it. There is a process where officials from different departments are talking to each other about what’s doable and what’s not doable. But I suppose the bottom line is we can’t really continue as we have been in terms of how, in particular my department, the Department of Children and the officials there, have been trying to scurry around to find accommodation when we have 700 people continuing to come in,” reports Breaking News.
The Green Party TD added: “Our offering is open ended. There’s no time limit on it, and that’s actually out of kilter with the rest of Europe as well. But it’s important to say, and if the public probably don’t realise this, but during the summer, at the end of the summer, we came very close to not having any accommodation of any kind, for quite a large number of Ukrainians who have been staying here, who had to move out of student accommodation that we were using temporarily. And we’ve come to a number of very close pinch points over the last 18 months, but particularly this year where we are staring down the possibility of Ukrainians not having any accommodation. So we don’t want to get to that point. Okay. But we have to grasp the nettle and adapt and redesign the system so that we can in the medium term continue to fulfil and continue to welcome Ukrainians here,” reports Breaking News.
O’Brien said he did not understand that the state would impose a 90-day limit on people arriving from Ukraine.
Various options are being tested, especially for vulnerable people.
There were a number of strands of options available, he said. “There are quite a few pledged properties available at the moment. Just in the last week we’ve had 250 people moved into properties. That’s a small amount in terms of what’s coming in at the moment, but that is an option. For example, it’s important to say as well, there are 25,000 Ukrainians who are not in state provided accommodation and are in accommodation that they’re sourcing themselves as well,” reports Breaking News.
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