Kyiv’s top envoy to Dublin is furious following Irish government plans to cut the welfare payments made to many of the estimated 100,000 Ukrainian refugees resident in the Republic of Ireland.
Ukrainians coming to Ireland will shortly receive €38.80 per adult per week from the Irish state, down from a previous €232, an 85% reduction. Generous welfare payments to refugees is a pull factor which explains Ireland’s disproportionately high rate of Ukrainian refugee arrivals, compared to the European Union average.
Ambassador of Ukraine to Ireland Layrsa Gerasko was angered when the Irish Cabinet signed off on the new asylum payment levels on Wednesday, affecting approximately 27,000 Ukranians in the three months ahead. The measure is designed to counteract the variety of welfare loopholes that have made Ireland the most attractive jurisdiction for Ukrainians in Western Europe.
Independent TD (MP) Carol Nolan was defiant about the need to curtail overly generous asylum expenditure. She told The European Conservative:
We cannot and should not continue to subordinate our vital national interest to the provision of an excessively generous welfare package for those coming from Ukraine.
Nolan also asserted that the welfare of the Irish public should be the top priority of any Irish government.
Dublin is grappling with an evolving asylum crisis. The unexpected influx of asylum seekers has worsened a pre-existing housing shortage in the Republic. Controversy erupted in October last year when it was revealed that the Irish state was offering Ukrainian refugees the most generous welfare payments in Europe, worth multiple times more than those on offer in the rest of Western Europe.
Perceived overspending makes claims from Ambassador Gerasko and the Irish left that the government was making concessions to recent anti-migrant protests ring hollow.The recent phenomenon of asylum seekers travelling from Northern Ireland to Dublin has added an international dimension to the Republic’s ballooning asylum troubles—complicated by allegations that the UK Rwanda Plan is incentivising asylum seekers to travel to Ireland from Britain.
The Republic’s ruling Fianna Fáil party held crisis talks to deal with fears of an escalation in asylum numbers this week, coinciding with authorities beefing up checkpoints to target refugees travelling near the border with Northern Ireland.
Until recently, migration was kept behind a political cordon sanitaire in Irish politics.Now the issue is looking increasingly explosive, as polling predicts wins for populist candidates in the upcoming European and local elections across the Republic.
