Red Cross calls for increase in financial support for people homing Ukrainian refugees

Liam O'Dwyer, Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, said it was possible that the government monthly support of €400 to pledging households may be reviewed.

The head of the Red Cross in Ireland has said there could be a couple of hundred households still to become available to pledge accommodation to Ukrainian refugees, and suggested the current rate of financial support may increase in the future.

Liam O'Dwyer, Secretary General of the Irish Red Cross, said the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis meant a review of the current level of €400 a month to pledge households was likely in future, with more households still available even as some pledges come to an end.

Latest figures from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth show that as of the end of August 3,967 people had been matched to more than 1,440 pledged properties around the country.

Extra housing available

However, Mr O'Dwyer said Red Cross data showed that the number of households that have recently sought and received garda vetting is closer to 1,700, meaning another couple of hundred households may be available to assist in accommodating the influx of Ukrainian refugees.

He said a number of new recent arrangements involved households who had initially expressed a desire last March or April to provide accommodation, while very few existing pledges had come to an unexpected or abrupt end.

"We haven't experienced any of the pledges that we have facilitated at this stage coming to an end," he said. "We have on our database the records which show that some people are coming to an end [with their pledge] and we will contact them close to those dates to see what the situation is.

"Our interest from a Red Cross perspective is if we put someone in a house and the pledger says 'that's the end', we will move them to another pledge or accommodation or in a worst case scenario, back to one of the [emergency accommodation] centres. But there are sufficient pledges there."

Mr O'Dwyer said that as far as the Red Cross was concerned all Ukrainians in university accommodation had now been resettled elsewhere.

"I think there is significantly more pledges that can be utilised," he said, referring to the close to 1,700 figure for households that have undergone garda vetting.

Cost of living impact

However, Mr O'Dwyer said the cost of living crisis had impacted on some pledges.

"We have certainly have seen quite a number of withdrawals where people have said we have had to reconsider.

"We have quite a number of people, 10 or 12, who have come to us who had refugees pledged with them in an informal way and they have come to us and said we can't manage any more, can you move them somewhere else.

"We certainly have noticed that some people's circumstances have changed."

He said this meant it was possible that the government monthly support of €400 to pledging households may be reviewed.

"I think it will and given the state of the economy at the moment, particularly with gas and electricity prices, I think they will review it.

"There is no doubt that the bills have become very significant."