The Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland said she has told Ukrainians to consider going to other countries as Ireland struggles to accommodate arrivals.
Larysa Gerasko confirmed that she has advised Ukrainians that the Irish Government cannot guarantee accommodation to refugees fleeing the war in their homeland.
The diplomat visited the Tiglin Centre in Ballymaghroe, Greystones, Co Wicklow on Saturday to meet the 109 Ukrainian nationals living on-site.
Ms Gerasko said the centre was one of the best examples of how people in Ireland have embraced and welcomed Ukrainians to these shores.
Ms Gerasko told RTÉ News that she recorded a video message for Ukrainians which was shared on Ukrainian media and on the social media of their Embassies, to the effect that “the Irish Government cannot guarantee accommodation for Ukrainians because of lack or absence of such accommodations”.
She emphasised that she wanted to underline her gratitude to the Government and Irish people for welcoming Ukrainians “under such horrible circumstances”.
Yesterday the Government introduced a series of new measures to deal with the accommodation crisis facing Ukrainian people, which will move away from emergency response towards a more sustainable medium- to long-term method.
A new €50 million community fund to help communities that have welcomed a large number of refugees will be set up. A refusals policy has also been introduced for Ukrainians housed in hotels which means that people who decline an offer of suitable accommodation will not be given another option. They will have to pay for food, transport and other ancillary services.
Those in direct provision who remain there after being given permission to stay in Ireland will lose automatic access to medical cards with a shift towards a means tested approach.
‘Dangerous narrative’
Speaking in Cork on Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that we need additional capacity which he believes can be created “although it will remain very challenging.”
This afternoon Minister of State at the Department of Finance and Laois Offaly, Sean Fleming TD, told Saturday with Katie Hannon on RTÉ Radio 1 said that his advice is that refugees should take “the offer that is available”.
“I would ask them why [if they don’t]. Many of these cases there might be a good reason. There might be a child with special needs. There might be a mother has a health issue. And in those circumstances yes those rules would not apply. They are not applying at the moment.
“A person would have to have a reasonable reason not to accept the first offer of accommodation and if there are reasonable reasons I think our services are well able to cope with that.”
Mr Fleming said people who are on the housing list who turn down accommodation are not offered immediate alternatives.
“In those situations, anyone on the housing list in Ireland who does get an offer of accommodation, you won’t get an offer get an offer the following week if you don’t like the first offer but you will get one in due course.”
Aodhán Ó Riordáin, Labour spokesperson for education, told the same show that this was a “dangerous narrative”, saying he hasn’t heard of any Ukrainians turning down accommodation.
“It is news to me. And I think the Government has to be very careful that this doesn’t seep in to a minority of opinion which will come back to us as politicians that ‘I hear they are turning down what they are being offered’,” he said.
“I think other avenues could have been exhausted in previous months like modular housing. There is issues around the amount of accommodation that was offered from private citizens.
“I heard rhetoric from the West of Ireland during the week of a councillor who didn’t like the look of it (modular housing). We have to go beyond this. We have a moral and a historical obligation from our own history to be as welcome as possible.”
Sinn Féin Senator Lynn Boylan also told the show that nobody is denying that the numbers of Ukrainians who have travelled to Ireland pose a “huge challenge” for the Government.
“But back in February they were talking about 200,000 refugees coming from Ukraine alone so there has been a failure to plan and there hasn’t been an all of Government approach. It seems that Roderic O’Gorman’s department has been expected to do all of the lifting.
“Whereas what you need is a whole of Government approach. You need the Minister for Housing to be on board, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Health. So that we can put in place wraparound services so that if there is modular homes going in to communities and if those communities already have a lack of resources in terms of access to GPs or in terms of school placements then extra resources need to be put in.”