Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, this payment is nothing to do with the temporary protection directive. This is Irish legislation. We can change, end or amend it. Indeed, we argued that existing Ukrainian residents would be supported but that the policy should not displace homes that should be available to the private rental sector. The Government voted against that in February. This is why we are in a situation whereby about a thousand additional homes come within scope for this payment every month. This is putting pressure on the private rental sector. I have examples of it. I come from a county where the average rent is below €1,600 per month and landlords have told me that they can get more money renting to Ukrainian families than to others. That is why 1,100 of those properties Donegal - one out of every seven rental properties - are in that space. It is the same in many other counties. This is fundamentally an issue of fairness.

Of course we have seen the compassion of the Irish people. Of course needed to move to support individuals when the war broke out. Two years have passed. A person who works side by side with an individual who has a similar sized family experiences a blatant unfairness when it comes to the Government's scheme in that the State pays for the rent of one and not the other. That is not acceptable. A third of Ukrainians are working, yet regardless of their income, employment status or profession, they receive State-supported accommodation. The problem is that this policy is displacing the private rental sector. The Minister needs to bring this to an end for new recipients immediately. As we pointed out in February, we cannot continue to put this pressure on the private rental sector.

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