VARADKAR: I’LL TAKE IN UKRAINIAN REFUGEES
Tánaiste’s vow as Government begins talks with Army to accommodate 100,000 f leeing warzone
Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett have applied to take in a family fleeing the brutal war in Ukraine.
The Fine Gael leader, who recently moved into a house in Dublin with Mr Barrett, last night confirmed the couple have registered with the Irish Red Cross to make a room in their home available to refugees.
The move came amid growing unease over the Government’s ability to provide accommodation for up to 100,000 Ukrainians expected to arrive here.
The Tánaiste said almost 10,000 refugees have already arrived in the country and that the Government is in talks with the Defence Forces about providing mass accommodation for them.
Mr Varadkar said: ‘At the moment, we’re relying very much on hotel and B&B accommodation around the country, but
for 10,000 people now we’re going to be at 20,000 by the end of the month, and this is more likely to continue than slow down. So we will have to work on other alternatives for accommodation.
‘Certainly, we are talking to the Army about Gormanston and Millstreet, that you’d be aware of, which would be group accommodation, which isn’t ideal, but that’s the best we could do for now.’
Speaking at Dublin Airport as he returned from a St Patrick’s visit to South America, he added, ‘Matt owns the house, so he registered with the Red Cross about three weeks ago. We wouldn’t have been able to do that in the past but we have a house now and we have a spare room’.
‘And, at the moment, they are assessing people for vacant properties, the Red Cross and the Refugee Council, and what they’ll do then is move on to people who can provide a room or have a link to a public transport service.
‘There’s a whole process cost that has to be gone through and Garda vetting and all sorts of things like that.’
Mr Varadkar paid tribute to the 20,000 people across the country who have offered accommodation to the refugees.
He said: ‘The Government is very grateful to the 20,000 people now in Ireland to have made an offer of accommodation and we just asked for a bit of patience, because I know people are keen to welcome people from Ukraine into their homes.
‘We’re happy to do that too, for at least six months. But initially, the focus is going to be on vacant properties and owned or accommodation that’s actually now available. So the Red Cross is actually going
‘We have a house now and a spare room’
to work with Defence Forces on that.’
The Tánaiste attended a Cabinet meeting this week in which ministers were told the Ukrainian refugee crisis poses an ‘unprecedented’ challenge to the State. The Irish Red Cross this weekend confirmed more than 9,000 refugees have arrived in the country since the Russian invasion.
At the Cabinet meeting, Taoiseach Micheál Martin indicated spare funding from the €4bn coronavirus emergency fund will be diverted to help the Ukrainian support effort. More than €3bn of that fund has not been spent and, amid growing uncertainty over the numbers that will seek sanctuary here, one minister said, ‘We may need every penny of it’.
The minister said of the meeting: ‘The main issue exercising the Cabinet is numbers and housing them. The concern is that we do not actually have a number – it could be 100,000 – whatever it is, we are committed to take our share of whatever comes across the border. We don’t have a choice
‘Hundreds of traumatised people are entering the country every day and will continue to enter the country. Are we prepared for them? It’s unclear to put it at its kindest.
Another minister said: ‘They are coming at a rate of 700 a day – that is only likely to accelerate. What are we going to do with them all? We will start to run out of hotel space very quickly.’
At the meeting, it was decided responsibility for accommodation will lie with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys will be responsible for welfare support while Justice Minister Helen McEntee will coordinate legal and security issues. Education Minister Norma Foley is tasked with securing education facilities for thousands of displaced Ukrainian children who do not even have English as a second language.
Meanwhile, the Irish Red Cross Society yesterday confirmed more than 20,000 members of the public have registered to accommodate Ukrainian refugees. Around 70% of those relate to shared accommodation, with the rest coming from owners of vacant properties.
Red Cross spokesman Brian Purcell told the MoS: ‘We are absolutely astonished and humbled, and it’s been really heart-warming to see the response of the Irish people.’