Coveney: Government 'caught out' by Ukrainian refugee numbers this weekend

Minister Simon Coveney TD said on RTÉ Radio the State has in a relatively short number of months accommodated almost 60,000 Ukrainians in people's homes, and in 22% of the hotel rooms across the country.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said the Government was “somewhat caught out” by the large numbers of Ukrainian refugees coming to Ireland this weekend.

Explaining why the Government was forced to turn away 43 refugees this weekend due to a lack of beds, Mr Coveney said the system is under huge pressure but what happened is “not acceptable.” 

“What's happened this weekend is not acceptable. The government is not happy about it. We have a meeting tomorrow to try and put responses in place. And this, by the way, is not just the responsibility of one minister. It's the responsibility of us all in government to ensure that we find sufficient accommodation,” he said.

He said on RTÉ Radio the State has in a relatively short number of months accommodated almost 60,000 Ukrainians in people's homes, and in 22% of the hotel rooms across the country.

He accused Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald of “playing politics” with the crisis by saying this scenario was “utterly predictable”.

“But it is no secret, Ireland is being put under huge pressure. Ireland has never faced a migration crisis like this before,” he said.

“And unfortunately this weekend, we have been somewhat cut out in the context of the numbers that have come over the last few weeks. We need to respond to that as a government now and we will,” Mr Coveney said.

Speaking on Sunday, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko said it is “unacceptable” that her country men were being turned away by the Irish State.

She said it would have been better that the government had made it known that there was a risk of people being turned away.

Mr Coveney said it was his understanding that there was a conversation where the pressure the system here was facing was made known.

The Taoiseach defended the Government’s response to the accommodation shortage for Ukrainian refugees, describing it as “remarkably fast”.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko said it is “unacceptable” that her country men were being turned away by the Irish State

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has been severely criticised for failing to deliver modular homes to house Ukrainian refugees, as a total of 43 Ukrainian refugees have been turned away by the Government this weekend.

A group of 35 refugees, mainly men, spent the night sleeping at Dublin airport because the transit centre at Citywest is at capacity.

The Irish Red Cross said the situation is “pretty desperate” but said it has offered assistance to the Government but that pledge of help has of yet not been taken up.

The IRC Secretary General Liam O'Dwyer said on RTÉ radio there are about 2,000 unused pledges not yet taken up despite being offered by the public, but some of the places are in rural disconnected areas and the families arriving in from Ukraine are reluctant to move to those areas.

“We have offered support to the government and they haven't taken that up just yet. I think the situation is fairly desperate at the moment,” he said.

Mr Dwyer said he is aware that a significant number of commercial offers have come through our office directly into the department.

As these are very much commercial offers, what is done with them is obviously is in the hands of the government, he said.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has been severely criticised for failing to deliver modular homes to house Ukrainian refugees, as a total of 43 Ukrainian refugees have been turned away by the Government this weekend.

Mr Dwyer hit out at the Department of Housing’s failure to bring forward its plan to use modular housing, saying: “We haven't heard of the modular housing”.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has said that all of the refugees who have been left without accommodation since Friday are men but there are reports of some women among those refused accommodation.

These people who were refused help have been referred to homeless charities operating in Dublin.

No formal arrangements are currently in place to accommodate or support overnight stays by refugees or asylum seekers at the airport.

The department plans to open an overnight accommodation facility there from tomorrow.

The Cabinet subcommittee on housing will be meeting on Monday to discuss what can be done to respond to the numbers.