The Coalition is not considering placing a cap on the number of refugees arriving into Ireland, but has warned those fleeing war that they may be left homeless as the State has run out of space.
Officials in the Department of Children are this weekend finalising plans to use a building in Dublin Airport to process any new arrivals, with the facility expected to be ready by Monday. This comes after the Government announced a pause on arrivals to the Citywest reception facility in Dublin as it had reached capacity.
Speaking on Friday, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman admitted that some international protection applicants could end up sleeping on the streets because of the lack of available accommodation. And while Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government will “do everything we possibly can to avoid and to prevent” Ukrainian refugees sleeping on the streets, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said accommodation cannot be guaranteed for those who arrive.
“The truth is we are no longer in a position to provide accommodation for everyone who arrives in the country. We need to be honest about that. We will do our best to accommodate as many people as we can. We are using a lot of hotel accommodation at the moment, trying to find old buildings and bringing them back into use, making sure we support communities that have accepted a lot of people in from Ukraine and elsewhere,” he said.
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“But it is a very difficult situation, and we are in the same boat as pretty much very country in Europe. We can’t turn our backs on these people but we also need to be honest as well. While there is no limit on the amount of compassion Irish people have, there is a limit to capacity. At the moment we are in the position where we cannot guarantee accommodation for everyone who arrives.”
He confirmed that the Government is not examining putting a cap on the number of arrivals, citing European legal obligations.
“That is not something we can do, aside from being a breach of European law, and aside from the fact it would be telling neighbouring countries who have been showing a lot of solidarity with us that they should deal with the problem; that is not an option for us. I know some people will say ‘put a cap on arrivals’, that is not possible as long as we are a member of the European Union. It also does not work. Trump tried to build a wall, it did not stop people coming. The British tried to put people on planes and send them to Africa, that did not work. The truth is the world is on the move.”
Mr Martin said there would be a Cabinet committee meeting on the issue on Monday to assess accommodation capacity. The meeting will examine a fundamental rethink of how the State plans to accommodate those seeking asylum in the long term.
With 25 per cent of hotel beds now occupied by those seeking protection, and a wide variety of other settings playing host, the Department of Integration warned this week that another 15,000 beds are needed before Christmas. Medium-term alternatives have been slow to come on-stream, however.
The Irish Times understands that a list of buildings has been identified for incorporation into the longer-term effort, with dialogue ongoing — including an office block in Dublin’s East Wall called Two Gateway, and Kill Equestrian Centre in Kildare.
Separately, the Taoiseach has said that a previous pledge to increase the €400 a month paid to households which had accepted Ukrainian refugees is “under review”. This is likely to be discussed in Monday’s meeting.
“We have pulled out the stops and we will continue to work to pull out all the stops,” Mr Martin said.
