Ireland reduces welfare rates for Ukraine migrants

The Republic of Ireland is to reduce welfare rates and limit state accommodation for new arrivals from Ukraine to 90 days.

The current rate of €220 (£190) per week will fall to €38.80 (£34) for the period that Ukrainian people are in state accommodation.

They will revert to the higher welfare rate when they leave these centres.

The parents of children in state accommodation will continue to receive the full monthly child benefit payment of €140 (£120).

The changes are set to be introduced early next year.

Efforts to encourage Ukrainian people living in the Republic to find work will also be stepped up.

Ukrainian welfare recipients will be interviewed with a view to matching them to available jobs.

There will be no change to the legal right of Ukrainian children to seek to enrol in local schools.

There will be no shadow schools in the new accommodation centres.

Opposition politicians attacked the plans to reduce welfare supports.

Labour TD Ged Nash said the government had failed to build accommodation specifically for refugees.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the decision was a "cynical deflection" from the "failure" to address the housing crisis.

John Lannon, chief executive of migrant support charity Doras, said he fears that if the 90-day limit on accommodation is imposed on Ukrainian refugees it will increase homelessness.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "It will put people in precarious positions and it's likely to leave women, children and men on the streets."

An analysis of migration figures released in November, showed that between March and December 2022 almost 68,000 people arrived in Ireland from Ukraine under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive.

As of December 2022, 87% of those who had been granted temporary protection had recent activity indicating that they were still living in the country.