Leo: I don’t want student or nursing home beds used for asylum seekers
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has told a private meeting of his Fine Gael parliamentary party he does not want to see any student accommodation, nursing homes or other amenities repurposed for asylum seekers.
It come as there are no spaces available for more than 600 asylum seekers who have arrived here in recent weeks.
Of 14 private nursing homes that closed in 2022, seven were repurposed to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers. And last week, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said he would stop a plan to take 400 student beds in Cork for refugees if it comes to the Cabinet table.
It comes as the Government has insisted that cuts in welfare rates to newly arriving refugees from Ukraine will not be delayed despite Opposition claims of a ‘mistake’ in the legislation.
Proposed legislative changes underpinning the reductions, due to kick in at the end of this month, will only apply to new arrivals from Ukraine who stay in State-provided ‘designated centres’.
However, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has yet to publish a list of ‘designated centres’
‘We want to be fair and equal’
or where they will be located amid concerns they will not be operational on time.
A spokesman for Mr O’Gorman last night insisted they will have enough bed capacity to avoid delays, with 950 new arrivals due to be housed in the Electric Picnic site in Stradbally, Co. Laois.
A spokesman for the minister said 3,500 beds would become available across six centres that will be exclusively for Ukrainians.
In December, the Cabinet agreed to cut welfare entitlements to new arrivals from Ukraine from €220 to €38.80 and to limit State-provided accommodation to 90 days. The move is aimed at reducing Ireland’s attractiveness and to stem the numbers coming here.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys brought an amendment to the Social Welfare (Liable Relatives and Child Maintenance) Bill 2023 before the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection yesterday.
‘We want to be fair, we want to be equal, but we don’t want to be more attractive because that creates more problem,’ she said.
Several committee members raised concerns with the proposal being limited to those who stay in ‘designated centres’.
Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said the legislation was flawed as it did not account for additional capacity being added or vacancies arising in existing properties housing Ukrainians. He told the Irish Daily Mail he hoped the Government would revise it at the report stage next week.