Tag Archives: refugees

From top: Baggott Street Hospital, Dublin 2: Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

Temporary accommodation may be needed for up to three years for Ukrainian refugees, with each local authority mandated to develop a significant housing centre in their area.

….Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien  told Cabinet that he intends to use legal powers available to him to heavily restrict local authorities’ capacity to waive rates, in an effort to combat vacancy.

Ministers were told that powers would be used to allow a range of temporary facilities to be built bypassing planning – including medical, residential, education and childcare facilities.

Ministers were told that each local authority will be asked to identify one building in public or private ownership and develop a plan for its refurbishment.

Several large buildings have already been identified, many of them Health Service Executive properties.

Cabinet was told they include Baggot Street hospital and former institutions St Ita’s in Dublin and St Loman’s in Mullingar, as well as St Brigid’s nursing home in south Dublin and St Peter’s in Castlepollard.

Temporary housing for Ukrainian refugees may be needed for up to three years (Irish Times)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

This morning.

Meanwhile…

Developer Michael O’Flynn

Last night.

Prime Time on RTÉ One.

One of the country’s leading property developers has criticised plans to house Ukrainian refugees in temporary modular homes on State land.

Michael O’Flynn, CEO of the O’Flynn Group, said that the State should instead be considering more permanent housing solutions.

“Temporary modular buildings will be taken down in a number of years. That is not a solution,” Mr O’Flynn said.

It is hoped that construction will begin on the initial phase of 500 modular buildings as soon as possible, according to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.

“I cannot believe we’re going down that road,” Mr O’Flynn said.

Modular homes ‘not a solution’ for Ukrainian refugees – developer (RTE)

 

THis morning.

Dublin Castle. Dublin 2.

Earlier…

This morning.

Via RTE News:

Deliberations at today’s Cabinet meeting are expected to be dominated by the question of how best to provide assistance to refugees arriving from Ukraine.

It is believed Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath will tell colleagues that the projected cost of helping Ukrainians next year is €3 billion, up from a €2.5 billion estimate in March.

Latest figures show that 25,173 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland.

Of that number, 16,788 have been provided with accommodation by the State. However, it is expected around 33,000 Ukrainian refugees will have arrived by the end of next month.

Projected cost of €3bn to help Ukrainian refugees next year (RTE)

Sam Boal/RollingNews

This morning.

Via RTÉ News:

The proposed payment, which could be announced as early as next week, would aim to cover costs such as extra utilities bills, associated with housing those fleeing the war.

It would also act as an incentive to boost the number of accommodation places available for the number of refugees arriving in Ireland.

Yesterday, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that there will be no cap to the number of refugees Ireland accepts, even as the Government admits it is facing a struggle to house arriving Ukrainians.

Households expected to be paid up to €400 a month for hosting Ukrainian refugees (RTE)

Getty

Meanwhile…

‘sup?

Meanwhile…

This afternoon.

Meanwhile….

‘Seems insensitive’?

Only you can decide.

Who is in charge of the Ukrainian refugee response? (Gerard Howlin, Irish Times)

This morning.

Via RTÉ News:

The Cabinet will hear this morning that more than 22,000 people from Ukraine have arrived here since 25 February.

So far, 14,155 people have sought accommodation from State services.

Efforts are being stepped up to process the offers of accommodation pledged by the public.

So far, only about half of those who offered accommodation are answering these calls.

Defence Forces personnel are contacting more than 1,200 property owners every day as they work through the 24,000 or so pledges of accommodation.

Meanwhile…

It is now likely that camp beds in community halls will be used in the next few days to accommodate people.

Community hall camp beds likely to be used for Ukrainians fleeing war (RTE)

Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Arbour Hill yesterday

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

There are acute concerns in Government about capacity to house Ukrainian refugees, with the available supply of hotel and B&B places almost exhausted.

While senior officials said facilities such as large halls with camp beds and tents were unlikely to be required before Easter, sources were unwilling to rule them out beyond that.

A scramble for additional sources of accommodation is under way across all arms of government and local authorities, with an emergency summit of the construction and property industry due to be held on Monday by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.

Fears grow in Government about Irish capacity to house Ukrainian refugees (Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

…via Irish Examiner:

In terms of the influx of Ukrainian people fleeing the war, Taoiseach Micheál Martinsaid it is going to become extremely challenging because over 20,000 people have come into the country in a matter of weeks.

He said such an influx is unprecedented in terms of anything we have experienced before in relation to refugees fleeing a conflict zone and a war.

Asked about people living in large communal halls, he said the number of public pledges of help “is not as large as originally anticipated

We have to move fast in terms of going through all the pledges for example, not all of them have been processed or gone through and there’s some opportunities there.

Number of Irish pledges to house refugees ‘not as large as originally anticipated’ (Irish Examiner)

RollingNews

Central Train Station, Kyiv, Ukraine last month

This morning.

Further to Ukraine’s banning of military-aged men from leaving the country…

…via EuroNews:

Members of Ukraine’s transgender community are having trouble fleeing Russia’s bombardment of the country, activists have told Euronews.

They say some are being stopped at the border because the gender markers on their passports or identification documents do not match their actual genders.

Activists say both transgender men and women are facing the problem, but it is a particular problem for the latter.

“The situation is very hard because the LGBTQ+ community was feeling marginalised and discriminated against before the war began,” said Igor Medvid, a coordinator for HPLGBT.

Many people say that when they attempted to cross the border, the border police and the border guards are making their decision based on the gender marker in the passport…and we consider this as another example of lawful transphobia.”

Meanwhile…

While LGBTQ+ activists in Ukraine have made strides over the past couple of years, there are still many barriers for trans people.

Before 2017, members of the trans community had to spend time supervised in a mental institution before they could begin transitioning.

But while that requirement has been scrapped, people still need an outpatient psychiatric examination to change their gender markers, which could lead to inpatient hospitalisation.

They also have to undergo “irreversible medical intervention”.

‘Lawful transphobia’ stopping Ukraine’s trans community from fleeing (EuroNews)

AP

Meanwhile…

Um.

This morning.

Hmm.

Meanwhile…

More than 20,000 offers to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees have been made, the Irish Independent understands.

There have been over 15,000 offers made through the Government’s pledge portal which includes spare rooms and vacant second homes.

However, a further 5,000 housing offers have been made through other non-governmental organisations (NGOs), bringing the total to over 20,000 offers.

The Red Cross will begin contacting “small numbers” of people who have made some of the 15,000 pledges this week to start the process of housing incoming refugees.

Fiche míle fáilte – More than 20,000 offers of accommodation for fleeing Ukrainians (Independent.ie)

Getty

Meanwhile…

This afternoon.

Anyone?

Meanwhile…

Ah now.

Yesterday: Pledges

Micheal Martin’s holiday home?