Cost of housing Ukrainian refugees ‘creates challenges’ in budget, says Martin

The next budget will have to factor in the costs of accommodating tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said, stressing that Ireland would “honour our commitments” to accept any refugees who make their way here.

He said the costs this year would be met by using money set aside for Covid, but that “into 2023, there will be costs. And therefore the budget towards the latter part of the year will have to reflect that and that does create challenges, economically and fiscally.”

“The economic implications of this war are there to be seen in the continuing increase in energy prices, in food security issues and we know that some sectors of agriculture are bearing the brunt of this,” Mr Martin told reporters in Dublin on Wednesday.

Mr Martin said there was strong political agreement on supporting the welcome for Ukrainian refugees. The war, he said, “is having a terrible traumatic effect on people”.

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More than 15,000 people have fled Ukraine to Ireland, Minister says

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He said many people had “left their husbands and partners, left their grandparents, to provide safety for their children”.

After meeting the media at an event in the Royal College of Physicians, Mr Martin was approached by a Ukrainian woman who became emotional as she thanked him for all he and Ireland were doing for her country.

The Taoiseach added that refugees arriving from Ukraine would be given the opportunity to get a Covid vaccine. "We do know that the take-up of vaccines was low in eastern European countries ... but we're confident that with a targeted approach we can increase the levels of vaccination," he said.

Russian diplomats

Mr Martin declined to be drawn on the circumstances surrounding the expulsion of four Russian diplomats this week.

He said that the “activities of these individuals were not in accordance with international standards of diplomacy”.

“I think people can read various things from that, but fundamentally there was a security premise underlining the decision.”

He said they would leave Ireland “within days” but that they would be given time to prepare to depart.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said Ireland would potentially have to deliver up to 7,000 extra new homes per year to ensure there would be housing over the next five years for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

He said his department estimated that 35,000 additional homes over and above those planned for in the Government’s Housing for All plan may need to be delivered over the five or six years. He said delivering them would require extra funding and the possible use of emergency planning.

Earlier, Minister of State for Europe Thomas Byrne told an Oireachtas committee the Russian embassy had been "clearly on the radar" of the State for some time, pointing to the introduction of legislation that prevented the expansion of the embassy and the expulsion of a diplomat following the Salisbury poisonings in 2018.

“The four who have been expelled are not doing the work of diplomacy, they are doing other work,” he said.

Asked about repercussions for Ireland, he said that there would be no grounds for expulsion of Irish diplomats who “are not doing anything that’s incompatible with their diplomatic status”.

"We do not have spies or anyone doing non-diplomatic work in Russia, " he said. "However, we all know the form of Russia on this."