The government’s decision to cut supports for refugees from Ukraine has been criticised by various advocacy groups and TDs.
Last week, it was announced that the government would withdraw accommodation for 16,000 Ukrainian refugees who are currently in state accommodation.
The change in attitudes towards Ukrainian refugees marks a change from the previous government, when then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stated in 2024 that “no refugees will be sent back to Ukraine until Russia’s war is over.”
In 2024, when Sinn Féin’s policy plan on immigration was published, the party received criticism for proposing to end supports for refugees from Ukraine.
At the time, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill quipped, “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.
Less than two years later, the party has now taken the exact same position that they previously criticised.
The government’s rightward shift on migration since Jim O’Callaghan assumed the Minister for Justice role and the Greens were banished to the backbenches has been noticed by many, and the latest move of removing refugees from state and hotel accommodation has been criticised.
Recent rises in polling for Independent Ireland and Aontú, parties that are opposed to Ireland’s current immigration system, are understood to be part of the government’s rationale on the issue.
The Ukraine Civil Society Forum, a coalition of 122 organisations in Ireland supporting those displaced by the war in Ukraine, said that the government are “causing significant trauma and stress to the Ukrainian community.”
Brian Killoran, National Coordinator of the Ukraine Forum, said, “the government’s actions will disproportionately affect children and the most vulnerable – one in three beneficiaries of Temporary Protection is under the age of twenty,” he noted.
Killoran said, “withdrawing accommodation support at this time is both irresponsible and traumatising.”
“While we recognise that these were temporary measures, the war in Ukraine still rages on, and there simply isn’t capacity within the private rental market to absorb over 58,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection,” he said.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik remarked, “the government told 16,000 Ukrainian refugees to fend for themselves in an overheated rental market or return to a war zone; so much for solidarity with Ukraine.”
The Dublin Bay South TD accused the government of “deciding to throw thousands of Ukrainian refugees to the mercy of the rental market”.
In the current Cabinet set up, there is not a senior Minister role designed to handle integration like in the previous government; Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan serves as Minister for Justice as well as Immigration, with integration relegated to a junior ministry role.
Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy serves as the Minister in charge of integration in this government, and as such, the Ukraine policy stems from his department.
In an interview with the Irish edition of The Times, the Dublin South-West TD conceded that “I imagine that we’ll have somebody talking to a journalist and saying they can’t find accommodation,” he said.
“But overwhelmingly, what we’ve found to date is that Ukrainians are very, very resilient in terms of finding accommodation, because there is a strong Ukrainian community here.”
Brophy told the outlet he was adamant that refugees would not face a “cliff edge” in terms of supports running out.
“We don’t want to see a problem for Ukrainian people, but we do want to see a situation where we have equality and fairness across the board.”
In March, Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger accused Sinn Féin of “punching down” by supporting the government’s plans to phase out supports for refugees from Ukraine.
Coppinger called the government’s treatment of refugees “performative cruelty,” and that both parties in coalition, along with Sinn Féin were “bowing down to the far-right.”
“It is shameful that Sinn Féin is punching down. That is what it is doing. There is no proof that this is having an impact on the housing market,” adding that their treatment of refugees “will not get them any votes.”