Tanaiste in doghouse over €1million a month bill for refugees’ pets
»»Fianna Fail leader defends big spend in Dail »»Proposals to end practice were resisted
TANAISTE Micheal Martin was forced to defend the amount of money being spent on pets for Ukrainian refugees.
It comes after the Irish Mirror revealed that taxpayers are paying up to €1million a month for more than 1,800 dogs, cats and other animals to stay in hotels and other State-funded accommodation.
These included both pets that had travelled to Ireland from Ukraine with their owners and animals acquired by refugees since arriving in Ireland.
Yesterday in the Dail Clare TD Michael Mcnamara described the expenditure as “ridiculous” and said the Government was “taking the p**s out of the Irish taxpayer”.
The Tanaiste defended the expenditure and insisted that there was “a context at the time”.
He added: “We all responded in a humanitarian way at the time. No one believed the war would go on for two years.
“The essential response that we made at the time was to be a humane response.
“I think, there was a context at the time in which this country responded.
“We can be overly negative about ourselves all of the time, I think it was a decent response. I think it was a decent response that reflected the best of what we are as a people.”
The Irish Mirror can now also reveal that officials in the Department of Integration pushed back against moves to end the practice.
Emails show that senior figures argued against plans to pull the plug on the practice, citing the importance of pets to children.
Another official also raised concerns that the State could be sued for breach of contract if it suddenly stopped paying for the accommodation of pets from Ukraine.
The controversial policy remained in force for the first eight months of the Ukraine crisis but internal emails show that discussions about ending it began on August 29, 2022.
One official set out this position in a group email, advocating that “from this point on, we don’t accommodate pets, certainly not if purchased here”.
They wrote: “We’ve significant constraints, notwithstanding what other countries do, we make our own calls.”
However,
Response that we made at the time was a humane response MICHEAL MARTIN IN
THE DAIL YESTERDAY
a principal officer in the department argued that “pets are extremely important to children, often the first or second most important thing in their lives when asked”.
She said a recent study found that 50% of children had pets and saw pets as part of their family. “Some also included their pets name when asked to list their family,” she added.
The official highlighted that there were “multiple benefits” to having a companion animal and claimed that some children even use their pets “to talk about their life”.
However, Integration Minister Roderic O’gorman appeared to favour a different approach, wanting the officials to come up with “a new policy on pets in our accommodation”.
An email from a top civil servant said: “Minister is clear – from date XX we will no longer accommodate people arriving into Ireland with their pets in our accommodation,” they wrote on September 16.
“If they still come with pets, we will give them the choice of divesting themselves of the pets… or they find their own accommodation.”