Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Minister was at pains to emphasise how much Ireland has done, how proud we are of the people we have taken in and so on. However, she wants to cut the payments to Ukrainians. She wants people to live on €38.80 a week while living in overcrowded and inadequate emergency accommodation. She thinks that is okay, and so does Sinn Féin. In fact, it is pretty poor. Would the Minister live in conditions like that? Setting aside that people have fled a war to get here, does she think it is acceptable to have anybody living like that in this day and age? In fact, it is a scandal that anyone is living like that. The Government was treating Ukrainian refugees with a modicum of decency, saying they had the right to work and giving them a PPS number and the right to access social welfare. Those are the basic things we should be doing. The scandal is that this was not extended to all asylum seekers. It played into the hands of the far right by putting forth the idea that there are good asylum seekers, who are mostly white and from Europe, and bad asylum seekers. That was wrong. It is really bad that the Government's response now is to bring everything down to the same level.

Will the Minister clarify, as she seems to be suggesting, that when the temporary protection directive expires, all Ukrainians who are here will have their payment reduced to €38.80? Will she confirm that this will not just apply to those who are not yet arrived and can therefore make a judgment on whether to come but that the people who are here, including those arriving today or tomorrow, will also have their payment reduced to the pitiful level of €38.80?

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