Ukrainians arriving in Ireland to be housed in tents

A young boy arrives at Przemysl train station on a train from war-torn Ukraine. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The Cabinet has been told that crisis measures such as tented villages will be needed to provide temporary homes for Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland.

The government has accepted that the short-term challenge of providing suitable accommodation for the large numbers of Ukrainians coming to Ireland must be met with a range of measures outside of normal accommodation structures.

The Department of Housing is urgently developing proposals to help address those needs over the long term but the Taoiseach has said crisis measures such as tented accommodation at the Gormanston camp in Meath may be needed in the coming weeks.

The costs of humanitarian aid will be met from the remaining €2.5bn in the Covid contingency fund set aside in Budget 2022.

Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath is working on projections that now put the cost to the State at €400m for every 10,000 people who need assistance for a year.

Cabinet was told that 14,611 Ukrainians had arrived in Ireland by last night.

The volume of arrivals has seen the Citywest Convention Centre pressed into action to provide an overflow when high volumes occur at Dublin Airport. 

Additional facilities are also being put in place in Rosslare Port and the Millstreet Arena will have the capacity for more than 400 people and is on target for use from April 18.

A Ukrainian evacuee hugs a child in the train station in Przemysl, near the Polish-Ukrainian border. Picture: Angelos Tzortzinis / AFPPhoto 

Diplomatic fallout

Russia has threatened retaliation after Ireland expelled four senior diplomats from the embassy in Dublin on foot of “security advice”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil the expulsion was after advice that the individuals’ behaviour was not “in accordance with the international standards” expected of embassy staff. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney summoned Russian ambassador Yuri Filatov to inform him of the expulsions.

The Russian embassy said in a statement, the move “will not go unanswered”.

“The embassy rejects such qualifications of the work of our diplomats,” it said. 

“This is an arbitrary, groundless decision, which can only deteriorate further Russian-Irish relations, already damaged by the Irish participation in illegitimate EU sanctions against Russia.”

The embassy currently has 30 people attached to it, including 14 diplomats and 16 administrative and technical staff, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

It is not clear who the expelled four are and whether all come from the rank of declared diplomats or if any are from the declared administrative staff.

The 14 declared diplomats are identified on the Department of Foreign Affairs diplomatic list and include defence attaché Colonel Igor Molyanov and assistant military attaché Major Dmitry Chivikov, both of whom, like many of the other diplomats, are here with their wives or partners.

Security sources suspect that members of the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, and the country’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, have officers, declared and undeclared, in Ireland, not necessarily based in the embassy.