Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 June 2022
3. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his views on the Ukrainian refugee crisis unit within his Department; and his further views on the number of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived and who have requested assistance from the International Protection Accommodation Services. [28272/22]
View answerMy question relates to the Ukrainian refugee crisis unit in the Department and I seek the Minister's views on the refugees who have arrived. Arising from the previous question and the recommendations in the White Paper, is he confident that between now and the end of the Government's term, in two and a half years' time, that it will be able to implement the recommendations?
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, and the invoking of the temporary protection directive by the EU, my Department has worked intensively as part of the cross-government response to the Ukraine crisis.
The operational challenges brought about by responding to the conflict are significant. Our country has never experienced an influx of displaced persons such as that seen over the past four months. My Department's role is focused on the immediate short-term accommodation needs of those who have fled Ukraine. To date, some 33,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland and we are providing accommodation to 23,000 of them.
Within my Department, a dedicated Ukraine response division has been established. The team includes more than 80 staff, the majority of whom have moved from within the Department with consequent impacts on ongoing work priorities. The division also includes new staff and those seconded from other Departments and agencies.
Overseeing the provision of accommodation on this scale during this timeframe for all those who require it remains immensely challenging. Due to the urgent need to source accommodation, a broad range of accommodation types have been contracted, including emergency accommodation. While this is not ideal, the priority is to place people fleeing the conflict in safe and secure accommodation. Numbers seeking international protection have also increased adding to accommodation capacity issues.
I wish to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work and commitment of departmental staff in providing accommodation for so many people in such a short period, as well as maintaining work progress in other key areas. Many staff have volunteered their time, at night and on weekends, to work in the welcome centre in Citywest to provide the people fleeing Ukraine with an immediate welcome as they arrive here. I also acknowledge the staff from other Departments working in Citywest, including those from the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Justice, as well as medical staff from the HSE. My Department and its staff will continue in their efforts to assist those arriving from Ukraine and those seeking international protection as best they can.
I, too, commend the staff in the Minister's Department and the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, and I acknowledge the assistance they were given by local authorities around the country in identifying properties. However, tomorrow marks the 100th day of the conflict in Ukraine and there is no end in sight..
Accommodation centres are around the country, including in west Kerry. There is a centre in Gallarus, south Kerry. Those types of accommodations are clearly inappropriate in the medium term. What plans does the Minister have to deal with the Ukrainians who have been given accommodations in those areas? I note that €16 million was spent in March and April on accommodation to house those who needed assistance from IPAS. It is tied to the housing crisis and the lack of accommodation for the regular asylum seeker, which seems to have stalled just like the Red Cross pledges. Is there any update on the vetting of homes so that we can use that avenue?
The medium-term accommodation needs of the Ukrainians is significant and the Government is examining it. Part of that includes those Red Cross pledges. There are 1,200 people in pledged accommodation now which is a significant support to the State in terms of the accommodation of the Ukrainians here, and those numbers will continue to grow.
As the Deputy is aware, we are engaging closely with the Department with responsibility for housing on a range of medium-term accommodation solutions that it is bringing forward. The Department is looking at a number of issues, including modular housing and the refurbishment of large institutional buildings to make them fit for habitation in the medium term.
All of those avenues are being pursued and will deliver accommodation in a three to six-month period. We have to be honest, however, that things will be tight this summer. The offering for many Ukrainians will continue to be hotel, guesthouse or more emergency accommodation. We are offering shelter and security, which is all that we can offer at this stage.
One of the Minister’s colleagues in government previously said there was a question of perhaps up to 200,000 people arriving. Does the Department have revised or anticipated figures as to how much it will, as the Minister noted, continue to increase? What is the Department planning in respect of the number of people who will continue to come from Ukraine?
At the start of this crisis, many figures were thrown around. We have to deal with the figures we see before us. As I said, we have 33,000 at the moment. We are seeing perhaps between 1,200 and 1,400 arriving weekly at this point. It has been fairly steady on that figure for the past three weeks. We build assumptions into the various models we use for our accommodation. We use our models based on a slightly higher figure, just to give us a little bit of room for expansion. That is what we are seeing at the moment and it has been relatively consistent over the past number of weeks. Even though the numbers arriving have dropped quite significantly, when the system is already under pressure additional numbers continue to put pressure on the system. However, we have great support over the summer, in particular from universities and institutes of higher education in terms of using student accommodation to meet need, where perhaps hotels are leaving the system so they can be commercially operational over the summer.
