Ukrainian refugees who fled to Ireland between 2022 and early 2024 will have their welfare allowances cut from September under plans agreed by Cabinet on Wednesday.
The payments for Ukrainian refugees living in State-provided, full-board accommodation will be reduced from the full jobseekers’ rate of €232 per week to €38.80 per week for an adult, subject to an income test, under the plan.
There will be a reduced weekly payment of €29.80 for a child.
The cuts in payments could mean that as many as 19,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection who arrived during the first two years of the war – and who are not working – will get payments at the same level of allowances as those who have arrived since March this year.
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A previous Government decision reduced the payments for new Ukrainian arrivals provided with full board accommodation by the State from March 14th.
The Government agreed in May to bring in “equivalence of treatment” between beneficiaries of temporary protection who arrived in Ireland before and after March 14th.
On Wednesday the Government agreed the implementation plan to give effect to that decision.
The measures were contained in a memo brought to Cabinet by Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys and Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman.
Around 200 places where Ukrainians are provided with accommodation, food, laundry and other services are to be categorised as Designated Accommodation Centres.
Designation of accommodation centres will be effective from September and Ukrainians living in these centres will receive their first reduced payment on Thursday September 12th.
Communications are to go out in August to those affected by the expected changes.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said accommodation for international protection applicants should be in better-off areas rather than in communities “that are literally cut to the bone”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today show, Ms McDonald was outlining her party’s new immigration policy, which she said was distinct from the Government’s approach because “we place not alone human rights and respect for applicants at centre stage, but also respect for and acknowledgment of communities on a par with that.
“And our position is that reception centres should not be located in very, very deprived areas. We believe that is the wrong approach. If you look at what the Government has been doing, their approach has been arbitrary. It’s been very much ad hoc and driven by private provision,” she said.
“We are for the State providing this accommodation. It hasn’t been planned properly. And in many cases it has meant that facilities have been opened for very vulnerable cohorts of people in communities that are literally cut to the bone and struggling and not managing as things stand.”
Ms McDonald said data such as the deprivation index, data from the census and data from the CSO should be used by the Government to inform policy and the choices being made.
“What makes the issue of siting of international reception centres really, really, at odds is that that approach is not taken at all. And not alone that, as and when decisions arbitrarily are taken about the siting of centres, there isn’t then an audit even, a dialogue, a structured engagement or consultation with the community.
“So our approach ... it is to say simply this: you do not place these centres for very vulnerable cohorts of people who need support in very, very deprived, struggling and neglected areas, by the way, neglected by successive governments and for generations,” Ms McDonald said.
“They are not appropriate locations for these as centres and services. We can objectively verify that it shouldn’t be an arbitrary thing where centres are located. Equally, there still has to be a dialogue and engagement and a consultation with the wider community,” she said.
“At the heart of our approach, therefore, is community. It’s about living in the real world and recognising people’s lived realities. It’s about getting the system right in a way to protect our social cohesion and to have a system that enjoys public confidence.”
Ms McDonald denied this would give communities a veto. She said she did not accept the Government’s rationale that engaging with a community would give them a veto.
“I don’t accept that. I think that’s very cynical of them [the Government]. Communities aren’t looking for vetoes. Communities are looking for fair play, for fairness, for common sense, and for their voices to be heard.”
The current system for processing applicants was too slow, added Ms McDonald. The average processing time was 18 months and this left the applicant in the “invidious position of being in a very long limbo”.
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