Don’t expect financial reward for taking in Ukrainian refugees, says Varadkar

Homeowners who open their doors to Ukrainian refugees are unlikely to be offered financial compensation, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has indicated.

The British government has said people doing so will be paid £350 a month if they can offer refugees a spare room or property for a minimum period of six months under a scheme allowing those fleeing the war to enter the UK regardless of whether they have family ties.

Mr Varadkar on Sunday indicated that while such a scheme had been discussed, it was not being planned in Ireland.

“What we are really saying to people is that it is an altruistic thing, not something we would intend to pay people to do,” he said.

The Tánaiste said that while nothing could be ruled out in the future, there had been about 20,000 offers of accommodation to the Irish Red Cross and “nobody has asked for money at this stage”.

He and his partner, Matthew Barrett, have offered to take in Ukrainian refugees.

“It is not something we could have done in the past because we lived in an apartment and the spare room was effectively the only storage space we had. I have a house now so it’s a possibility.”

Mr Varadkar also said he did not envisage a cap being put on the number of refugees that Ireland would take in, with more than 9,000 having arrived to date and the total expected to hit 20,000 by the end of the month.

“That is going to be an enormous challenge but we are going to cope. We are going to do the best we can,” he said.

Vacant properties

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman on Sunday said efforts to accommodate Ukrainian refugees would focus on hotel rooms and vacant properties offered by the public before spare rooms in people’s homes were considered.

He said about 4,500 refugees were being accommodated in hotel rooms, while others were staying with family and friends. The focus would next be on the 2,000 or so vacant properties put forward during an Irish Red Cross drive and then on the spare rooms available in people’s homes.

“My department are looking to start to activate some of those accommodation options now, starting initially with options of vacant housing,” he said.

Mr O’Gorman told RTÉ’s This Week programme he expected “tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees” would need accommodation in the weeks ahead.

The Government was also preparing to open mass accommodation centres to provide shelter in the event of a surge in arrivals, in addition to more hotel accommodation.

The Minister said the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Co Cork and the National Show Centre near Dublin Airport were being considered to house hundreds of refugees “for very short-term stays”.

Planes

Meanwhile, Anne Rabbitte, the Minister of State with responsibility for Disabilities, has suggested that planes will have to be sent to poorer countries bordering Ukraine to bring refugees to Ireland. She said Moldova and Romania were nearing full capacity and bracing for second and third “waves” of arrivals.

Ms Rabbitte said these waves, predicted to include the most vulnerable people including disabled, chronically ill, older and infirm Ukrainians, would be “the most devastating”.

Moldova would be unable, she said, to meet these very vulnerable refugees’ needs without outside assistance, including moving them on to third countries, while Romania would need assistance maintaining the flow of refugees transiting through. “That is when Irish planes will have to land,” she said.

She said a commitment made last week to take 500 refugees from Moldova into the State must be acted on without delay. “We pledged to do it. So do it. And if the plane has to go back for another 500, it should go.”

Ms Rabbitte was in Romania last week to mark St Patrick’s Day and visited Bucharest’s main train station as refugees arrived from the Moldovan/Ukrainian border. She also visited the Romexpo trade and exhibition centre where 2,000 beds have been set up in the event that other accommodation hits capacity.