HOW RUSH TO AID REFUGEES IGNITED CRISIS FOR COALITION
THE COALITION row over plans to house the growing number of Ukrainian refugees arriving here is the culmination of simmering tensions between Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman and his Cabinet colleagues.
It reached boiling point after O’Gorman proposed restricting accommodation for Ukrainians to 90 days, after which they would have to find housing in the private sector.
Finance Minister Michael McGrath expressed concerns that this could put a strain on renters already struggling to find affordable accommodation.
Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste Micheál Martin was described as being particularly ‘agitated’ by Greens Minister O’Gorman’s plan, due to the pressure it would put on his party colleague, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.
But fierce Cabinet exchanges, which saw ministers Stephen Donnelly and Darragh O’Brien round on O’Gorman, have been nine months in the making.
THE FIRST ROW: O’GORMAN’S HOUSING CALL-OUT
The first signs of Cabinet cracks over the refugee crisis emerged last February, when O’Gorman issued a call-out to all departments to do whatever they could to help secure accommodation for Ukrainians.
When a leak suggested Cabinet co-operation was lacking, O’Gorman publicly complained his department got just one offer of accommodation following his appeal, saying ‘we have to do more’.
This provoked anger among his fellow ministers. Somewhat prophetically, the source added: ‘He has burnt a lot of bridges he might need another day.’
CHAOS IN CLARE: BURNING TENTS IN DUBLIN
Political concerns over our rising number of refugees were heightened in May when residents of Inch, Co. Clare staged a 24-hour protest outside Mogowna House, where O’Gorman’s department had planned to house 69 refugees.
More than 30 young men were bussed from the country’s largest asylum centre at Dublin’s City West complex to the remote rural community.
But some swiftly left after locals blocked roads with tractors and attempted to seal entrances to the holiday complex with bales of silage.
The issue was finally resolved, but the incident – and the burning of refugees’ tents in Dublin’s citycentre after an anti-immigration demonstration – further eroded confidence in O’Gorman. His department also conceded it was now unable to provide shelter to more than 550 asylum seekers.
SUMMER-TIME JITTERS
The July economic review then confirmed O’Gorman’s department had overspent by €458m. Unease turned to panic by September as figures showed the numbers of Ukrainians arriving here was rising.
A Cabinet sub-committee meeting was told the level of available accommodation was ‘narrowing significantly’.
One mooted approach included a ‘shift from open-ended Statesupported accommodation to a time-bound provision’.
In mid-September the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that O’Gorman’s department would need a €1bn bailout.
One Fianna Fáil minister told the MoS: ‘It is all spiralling out of control.’
SHOWDOWN LOOMS
At the end of last month, former Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry raised the issue in the Dáil, saying Ireland is ‘a complete outlier in the EU and neighbouring countries with the provision of €220 per week for those fleeing Ukraine’.
Citing a study based on figures from the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Development, he said the highest weekly payment to Ukrainian refugees outside of Ireland is Finland, at €130.
The lowest payments are in Belgium (€7.90 per week) and Hungary (€13.79). Germany pays €112 a week, followed by Spain (€100), France (€99) the UK (€95), Denmark (€82), Italy (€75), Portugal (€68), Luxembourg (€63), Holland
(€53), Greece (€50), the Czech Republic (€42) and Austria (€41).
The Cabinet sub-committee on Ukraine – which includes Coalition party leaders and ministers O’Gorman and O’Brien – met twice in September to discuss reducing welfare and other benefits, but the results were inconclusive.
At a meeting of the Oireachtas Children’s Committee on October 4, Minister O’Gorman refused to answer a question from Sinn Féin TD John Brady, who asked if the Cabinet sub-committee held discussions on the need to cut benefits, and if there was an unpublished report, or a comparative analysis, that had been conducted on the same issue.
The following day, the Taoiseach told a meeting of European leaders in Granada that Ireland would prefer to make a solidarity financial contribution under planned new EU migration rules, rather than accepting a fresh quota of refugees in the short term.
Privately senior figures were warning: ‘The Ukrainian situation will blow in a couple of weeks. Between accommodation and welfare, it is now turning into a multi-billion-euro nightmare.’