€1m-a-month Ukraine pets policy barking mad
A MILLION a month. That’s the incredible figure spent on paying for the pets of Ukrainian refugees to be accommodated, the Irish Mirror revealed this week.
One million euro a month for what is evidently an extravagance, not a need.
Not only paid out for cats and dogs being brought over from homes in Ukraine, but also those acquired after refugees arrived here.
It’s being defended politically as a virtue, but in any reasonable view, it’s more of a vice.
The public aren’t fools, our leaders should know that by now.
They should also know this kind of thing is antagonistic and irresponsible at a time of a widening wealth gap.
It’s a desperate squandering of other people’s money that could have been better spent in countless other areas, including housing homeless asylum seekers instead of leaving them in tents in the city.
True benevolence is about giving appropriately.
We cannot afford this. But the Government has forgotten the value of money, with Micheal Martin piously claiming it “reflects the best of who we are”.
The Tanaiste said the monthly million on animals was “a humane response” – proving there is nothing too ridiculous for politicians to defend with sanctimony.
He knows well it was entirely unnecessary and bad management. That’s why the plug was later pulled on the policy.
We don’t know who signed off on this nonsense, but you can be sure it was justified ideologically as a measure that would make us look good.
The Department of Integration may have foot the bill for the eight months this went on, from the outbreak of war in February 2022, until a halt was called that November.
But it was your hard-earned taxes that paid for it.
There should be an inquiry into this level of flagrant overspend by the state, with citizens’ money. How was this allowed to happen? Who signed off on it? Was it a case of being afraid to say No?
Why not just tell people arriving from a warzone, fine, you can keep Fido, but you’re going to have to pay for him yourself ?
Why such a level of exceptionalism to one group of people seeking sanctuary here?
Pet accommodation... medical cards without means tests... while others in dire circumstances get shoved into direct provision for years.
It puts the RTE barter account in the ha’penny place, with its €1.6million over an entire decade.
Officials there were dragged in and out to committees to answer questions about stupid spending that added up to a lot less.
Independent TD Michael Mcnamara is right: it’s evidence our government is taking the p**s out of the Irish taxpayer.
The Clare deputy is one of the few politicians in the country willing to voice compassionate common sense on the country’s key issues.
They’re generally independents, which is why this group is seeing the biggest rise in public support in the polls, up to 17%.
Mcnamara made a key point when he emphasised the state is to blame for the policy, NOT the people who benefited from it.
He said: “I presume the people arriving here with pets were prepared to pay for them in the same way everyone else does or as they would have in Ukraine.
“But if you find a department stupid enough to pay, then of course, I wouldn’t blame people for allowing them to pay for it.” It’s not the Ukrainians’ fault politicians have patronisingly deemed them their pet vanity project.
No, the fault for all this lies entirely at the feet of the Government.
Direct your indignation on them.