Ukrainians in Ireland may be offered cash incentive to return home

Ukrainians living in Ireland may be offered a “generous” financial package to return home as the government moves to wind down all state accommodation contracts for refugees within the next year, The Times reports.

Senior government officials are currently considering major changes to Ireland’s support framework for Ukrainians, with ministers reportedly favouring either an end to the EU’s temporary protection directive or a revised system that would restrict assistance to those from the most heavily affected areas of Ukraine.

Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy said the government intends to terminate remaining accommodation contracts under which approximately 16,000 Ukrainians have been housed since arriving in Ireland.

“That is what we want to really end. We want to end the situation where the 16,000 that came at the very start, that have effectively been accommodated by the state since their arrival, that we would be pulling out of that. Because no other EU state is providing that,” Brophy said.

“They will be having to leave because we will be ending the ­contracts. And the timeline is the critical thing here. We have a clear direction. I want to see that ­timeline be something we conclude in the next 12 months. We have to finalise that as a decision of government.”

Brophy added that officials are developing a returns policy to coincide with the end of the directive, which would encourage Ukrainians to return home with financial support. Currently, asylum seekers can receive up to €2,500 per individual or €10,000 per family to return to their country of origin.

Asked about the scale of the proposed package, Brophy said it would match the support initially provided when Ukrainians arrived in Ireland.

“It makes sense to have a generous response to enabling people to return, proportionate to the generosity that we were in enabling them to come to us in the first place.”

Since February 2022, more than 125,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine have been granted temporary protection in Ireland. Between July 2022 and March this year, over €438 million was paid to nearly 28,000 hosts under the Accommodation Recognition Payment scheme, which supported around 64,000 Ukrainian refugees living in private homes across the country. The payment was initially set at €400 per month, later increased to €800, and is currently €600, with the government seeking to reduce it back to €400.

“It is very important that we achieve over the coming months two things: the reduction of the accommodation recognition payment down to €400, then the termination of the accommodation recognition payment; and the removal of the accommodation directly provided by the state,” Brophy said.

“Because it’s taxpayers’ money that’s funding this, I want to see value for money. I believe that if a community or an individual can support themselves, then I don’t see why we as taxpayers should be paying out millions and millions and millions. It’s not being done in other European countries.”

The government continues to face pressure over accommodation shortages affecting both domestic housing and international protection applicants, while also seeking to return contracted hotel rooms to the tourism sector.

The EU’s temporary protection directive, introduced as an emergency measure to support Ukrainians fleeing the war, is currently due to expire next March after multiple extensions.

By Vafa Guliyeva