Ministers must ‘put shoulders the wheel’ as refugee crisis escalates

Ministers have been told to put their “shoulders to the wheel” as the Government scrambles to find more accommodation for people from war-torn Ukraine and other countries amid the escalating refugee crisis.

The renewed push to ramp up the number of places available comes as refugees had to sleep in Dublin Airport due to the main reception facility, Citywest, reaching capacity.

On Friday Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath both separately described the situation as not acceptable.

In a meeting on Thursday to discuss the escalating refugee crisis, Taoiseach Micheál Martin is said to have told Ministers and senior Government officials to put their “shoulders to the wheel” and avoid working in “silos” as part of a collective response to the influx of people.

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The Irish Times understands Ministers discussed the possibility of tents being put up at two more Defence Forces sites and other State-owned locations, to complement the facility already set up at Gormanston, Co Meath. It has capacity for 320 people and is expected to be brought into use early next week.

Ministers expressed a desire to speed up the process of Ukrainian refugees being able to take up offers of homes – either shared or vacant – made by members of the public through the Irish Red Cross.

Sources said Ministers discussed the possibility of increasing the number of modular homes to be delivered by the Office of Public Works (OPW) from 500 to 700.

Emergency procurement

The start of the rollout would also be brought forward to October rather than November through emergency procurement.

Another large facility has been identified to complement Citywest as an initial reception centre though the contract has yet to be finalised.

Some 1,100 more student accommodation places are to come on stream to add to 3,000 already in use but these will have to be vacated when students return to third-level institutions in the autumn.

In Cork, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said the provision of accommodation and supports for Ukraine refugees is likely to top €1 billion this year but Ireland’s international obligations would be honoured despite the strains the situation is causing.

The Department of Justice is to increase the number of staff processing asylum applications to help cope with the rising number of applications from people coming from countries other than Ukraine and speed up resolution of the cases.

There was concern at Thursday night’s meeting of Ministers at economic migration with people from countries like Georgia – which is deemed to be safe – seeking asylum.

Deportations restart

Deportations of people whose asylum applications have been denied – which were paused during the Covid-19 pandemic – are to restart.

To date more than 40,000 people have arrived from Ukraine, 30,000 of whom need accommodation provided by the State.

There have been a further 7,080 international protection applicants so far in 2022 – significantly higher than 2,648 for the whole of 2021.

Speaking in Galway on Friday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar suggested the number of non-Ukrainian asylum seekers could reach 15,000 by the end of the year.

He said this number, combined with people fleeing the war in Ukraine, and as many as 40,000 more people of other nationalities getting work permits to fill skills gaps, could mean about 100,000 people arrive in Ireland in 2022.

He said this is “unprecedented”, adding: “Some of it was planned, most of it is unplanned and it’s going to be difficult to deal with. We’re going to have to pull out all the stops to try and provide additional accommodation.”

He highlighted how other countries in Europe have taken far more refugees and said Ireland is not limiting the numbers that will be able to come from Ukraine.