The Government cannot say they did not expect this. It has been clear for some time that the response to the flow of Ukrainians arriving into the country has fallen short. It was inevitable that that flow would not let up, with an intensification of Russian attacks on Ukraine, including the targeting of power plants with the clear intention of weaponising the cold in the coming brutal winter. Like Ukraine, Ireland and the European Union must start preparing for a much longer conflict and an immediate acute crisis over the winter months.
The Government’s response has been too focused on short-term, temporary solutions to what is becoming a longer-term issue. Even the proposed solutions to this current lack of available accommodation are a short-term fix. More than 40 refugees had nowhere to stay over the weekend as the Citywest transit hub in west Dublin reached capacity. An additional facility temporarily housing new arrivals has been established at Dublin Airport.
This is not the first time that Citywest has reached capacity. The State also ran out of available accommodation in mid-July. Hotelsupply now looks exhausted with about 25 per cent of all hotel rooms serving as homes to refugees. Plans to build modular homes for 2,000 people at various places around the State are too slow-moving to provide any immediate relief and, once available, may prove inadequate should this war and the flow of refugees into the EU increase through the winter months.
Plans by local authorities to refurbish more than 100 vacant properties which could provide 4,000 beds will be another important source of accommodation, and suggests some evidence of longer term thinking. Extra payments to families housing refugees may also play a role.
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On a visit to Dublin last week, Kelly Clements, deputy high commissioner at the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, expressed concerns around governments needing to do more for refugees in the medium-term as prolonged war and winter will force millions more to flee. More than 58,000 people, including 42,000 Ukrainians, are already being accommodated by the State but this is a tiny proportion of the 7.7 million who have fled Ukraine since February when Russia invaded. The UNHCR says another two million could leave Ukraine in a worst-case scenario over the coming months.
As Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said last week: “There is no limit on the amount of compassion that the Irish people have; there is a limit to capacity”. That may be the case but the Government must, at all costs, push the latter limit. No one would suggest the task is easy in a State already struggling with an accommodation crisis. Yet it is incumbent on the entire State apparatus to come together to address the challenge.