Welfare bill for Ukrainians fleeing war hits €500m as more come seeking safety
Government unease grows over ‘ongoing cost of catering’ for refugees as numbers now exceed 115,000
IRELAND is on course to host more than 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war before the end of the year as the welfare bill for the refugees rises to just under €500m.
It comes as unease is growing in Government over the increasing cost of catering for those fleeing the Russian invasion of their country.
Pressure is growing on Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman to outline his long-term strategy to deal with the ongoing rise in arrivals.
One senior Government source told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘This is turning into a long-term commitment. The vast majority of refugees tend not to return. Money is tightening, the corporation tax bubble is ending. We need to know what Roderic’s plan for all this is.’
Latest figures provided by the Department of
‘No one dares mention it until it becomes a crisis’
Social Welfare show Ireland is on course to have more than 100,000 Ukrainian war refugees by the end of the year.
The State is currently catering for a total of 115,789 asylum seekers and refugees.
These include 92,843 Ukrainian nationals who were listed as Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) as of September 14, and 21,904 asylum seekers from other countries seeking international protection.
Commenting on the figures, one Government source warned: ‘There is a real and a proper crisis coming, but the woke police means no one dares mention the problem until it becomes a crisis or something terrible happens and then we will have no choice.’
The Government is struggling to find accommodation for the growing number of Ukrainian refugees, with 750 now being housed in tents on the site of the Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally, Co. Laois.
However, there is increasing concern over the long-terms cost implications of the war for the Exchequer.
A source said: ‘Accommodation may be the most high-profile issue right now, but the real longterm issue is the ongoing cost of catering for 80,000 refugees.’
Another Government source
said of the response to the rising refugee crisis: ‘It is still very much hand-tomouth stuff. With the numbers coming in, it is firefighting still. There is no sense of future planning in any coherent way.’ In its submission to the Tax Strategy Group, the Department of Social Protection noted that these costs have doubled in the space of a year.
The submission states: ‘Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ireland, like all European countries, took in refugees who were subject to the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive, which provided them with access to Social Protection supports.
‘Based on the 2022 Provisional Out-turn, supports totalling €240m were provided to Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection across a range of Department of Social Protection schemes,’ the submission said.
But it added: ‘The Revised Estimates for 2023 have made provision for €480m in funding to support Beneficiaries of
‘There is no sense of future planning’
Temporary Protection in 2023.’
Over the summer, the number of arrivals from Ukraine has
continued to grow, with more than 10,000 people having arrived since the beginning of May, or an average of about 650 every week.
Reflecting the pressure this is putting on the public purse, the department warned in its submission to the Tax Strategy Group, : ‘The Ukraine crisis [has] added considerably to the level of demand for Social Protection services.’
It noted that, up to the start of June of this year, the department had allocated ‘over 84,200 Public Personal Service Numbers (PPSNs) to people who have arrived in Ireland having fled the war in Ukraine under the Temporary Protection Directive’.
The department said ‘just over 36,100 income support claims had been awarded across various social welfare schemes’, with almost ‘14,000 Child Benefit claims awarded’.