Sinn Féin gamble on cutting support for Ukranian refugees

“I am asking the Minister to take immediate action to ensure that those who are working pay for their accommodation, like everybody else in the State, to bring an end to new payments under this scheme and to ensure proper controls are in place so the scheme does not reduce the number of properties in the rental market.”

Those were the words of Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who represented his party in last week’s leaders’ questions in the Dáil.

The Donegal TD went up against Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman, and repeated his calls for his party to end the ARP scheme.

The scheme has been in use since early 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but when Sinn Féin published their policy document on immigration over the summer one of the headline-grabbing ideas was the ending of the scheme which has helped refugees from Ukraine.

Their immigration policy document read “Sinn Féin proposes that standard immigration rules should apply to Ukrainians, along with “developing an assisted return to Ukraine scheme for those who can safely do so.”

Discussing Sinn Féin’s plan over the summer, Fine Gael Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill “how are they consulting to determine these safe areas? Is it Putin? Perhaps he’ll tell Sinn Féin what areas he won’t bomb or target in Ukraine?”

“We cannot take Sinn Féin seriously on anything, but especially not on migration,” she remarked.

“Sinn Féin loves the money from immigrants in the US but they shun the most vulnerable of immigrants and war refugees in Ireland and have shown so repeatedly in their desperate bid to chase votes.”  

In recent months, Sinn Féin’s tumble down the polls has been attributed to the party making statements such as Doherty’s, which turns off the social progressive voting bloc, and have made a bid to win more socially conservative voters which has failed to materialise in any meaningful way.

The party doubling down their desire to abolish the scheme is a sign of the party adopting more socially conservative positions on certain issues, which backfired in June’s local elections.

Over the last week, Taoiseach Simon Harris made comments about refugees that were characterised as “dog whistling” by various politicians and commentators.

In an interview with the Irish version of The Times, he said “people understand the fact that homelessness numbers are heavily impacted by the fact we are seeing many people seek protection in our country, seek asylum in our country and many people come from abroad hoping to have a new future in Ireland and immigration, it has many, many pluses, but it has had a challenge there.”

Harris has relatively little to lose by making a statement like that to a major media outlet, he can weather accusations of “dog whistling” because to be perfectly blunt it is to be expected from Fine Gael’s history of naked opportunism.

By virtue of being a centre-right party, comments like that from Harris are in the wheelhouse of Fine Gael declaring themselves “the party of law and order” and their “welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign.

In the time since this article appeared in print, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that immigration levels have “risen too quickly,” and said it was an “illusion” that the government could cut numbers.

Fine Gael are crafty enough that by backing socially progressive policies such as same-sex marriage (which was carried out at the behest of their coalition partners Labour) and the repealing of the 8th amendment they can give themselves the veneer of being just socially progressive enough to woo the centre ground.

When Sinn Féin calls for the abolition of support of refugees from Ukraine, it is out of character and feeds into the narrative of their flip-flopping as well as their desire to chase votes above all else in lieu of having a consistent ideology.

Indeed, in their role of opposition one would think that Sinn Féin would be disagreeing with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the issue instead of essentially parroting their line on the topic.

Doherty argued that refugees from Ukraine have been granted an “unfair advantage” in the context of the housing crisis, and while he did note that the Irish people have shown compassion since early 2022, there are limits as far as he is concerned.

“Of course we needed to move to support individuals when the war broke out; but two years have passed. A person who works side by side with an individual who has a similar sized family experiences a blatant unfairness when it comes to the government’s scheme in that the State pays for the rent of one and not the other – that is not acceptable.”

Sinn Féin is notable in wanting to cut financial supports for homeowners who take in a refugee from Ukraine, something neither government party is willing to do.

In the lead-up to the local elections, the party repeatedly stated they are against “open borders,” which, as we correctly predicted, majorly benefited more socially progressive parties of the left such as the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and Labour.

In the party’s Alternative Budget, the party said they would scrap the carbon tax, which feeds into the party having no coherent policy on climate change (a major issue for socially progressive and young voters).

In late August, the ROSA Socialist Feminist Movement staged a protest outside Sinn Féin’s Dublin HQ after Stormont passed a bill which banned puberty blockers.

ROSA said “Sinn Féin regularly pose as allies of the LGBTQI community,” but their decision “learns into backward and divisive ideas of the far-right and religious right and will harm many trans young people.”

In March, after party leader Mary Lou McDonald promised that Sinn Féin would re-run the referendums on Care and Family with “better wording” in the lead-up to the failed referendums, the party stated they had no intention of re-running the votes.

The most recent Irish Times poll has Labour tied with Sinn Féin on 13% in Dublin, the Greens on 9%, the Social Democrats on 6%, and People Before Profit/Solidarity on 3%.

Over the summer, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit called for a united left-wing front ahead of the general election, but in recent weeks he has quietly nixed the idea as Sinn Féin showed they are not willing to change their tune on immigration.

“The government has decided that scapegoating immigrants is the best way to cut across the growth of Sinn Féin and how did they respond? Join in the scapegoating instead of focusing anger on the government and their big developer and landlord friends.”

“It is a disastrous strategy,” he said.

While it is said that elections are won in the centre and Sinn Féin are simply playing to the centre ground (just like they did in 2020), their stances on social issues will make it that much harder for them to find a coalition partner.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik criticised Doherty’s remarks in the Dáil, saying that Sinn Féin are showing refugees from Ukraine “the cold shoulder.”

“It is certainly not helpful to hear government ministers appearing to scapegoat migrants. Nor is it helpful, however, to hear the biggest opposition party buying into the same political rhetoric,” she said.

“It is neither helpful nor appropriate to have anyone, in government or opposition, suggesting in any way that those who have come here fleeing Russia’s brutal bombardment of Ukraine have in some way contributed to a housing crisis that is of the Government’s making.”

“Communities across Ireland have stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and I am really disappointed to hear that Sinn Féin is clearly offering a cold shoulder to them.”