Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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241. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the current estimated cost of supporting Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, noting that Ireland has contributed over €20 million to humanitarian aid to Ukraine and has also committed the EU to almost €1 billion in further aid; and the financial support available to Ireland from the EU to reimburse the cost of supporting Ukrainian refugees in Ireland given that the EU has also committed to billions more in lethal military aid. [58924/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Welcoming and providing humanitarian supports to refugees from Ukraine has been a key priority for Government throughout 2022. A range of supports have been put in place for those arriving in Ireland including the provisions of accommodation, social protection, education and community response supports.

To the end of October expenditure of €0.6 billion has been incurred on this range of supports for c.60,000 arrivals. This includes humanitarian aid of €20 million through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Government is allocating one billion euro across Departments as part of the supplementary estimate process in 2022. Over half of this funding relates to the provision of accommodation supports for arrivals from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and over twenty percent relates to social protection supports. Other costs include education, health and community supports.

As part of Budget 2023 I outlined a contingency provision of €2 billion for the State’s continued response to the war in Ukraine. This provision is based on an assessment of arrivals and costs to date, and assumptions regarding demographics and service usage. This funding will remain under review throughout 2023 based on the latest available information.

The EU has introduced a range of flexibilities to address the impact of the influx of Ukrainian refugees including a regulation on Cohesion Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) allowing for the swift release and reallocation of existing cohesion policy funding. Member States are also permitted to use existing funds not yet programmed under the Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe (REACT-EU), a post-COVID recovery package and all unallocated resources under the current 2014-2020 funding period where programmes are drawing to a close. Ireland is making use of remaining unallocated funding under the European Regional Development Fund (€0.4m) and REACT-EU (€53m) for this purpose.

My Department has worked closely with other Government Departments and agencies to determine the range of existing activities supporting Ukrainian refugees which could be financed under this mechanism. Following examination of the range of services being delivered to Ukrainian refugees and the extent to which these align with EU funding criteria, the €53.4m in available funds is being directed to the Department of Social Protection via the European Social Fund.

These funds will be drawn down from the EU using a straightforward, ready-to-use unit cost or ‘Simplified Cost Option’ (SCO) which allows Ireland to claim a per capita payment of €100 for up to 26 weeks in respect of each Ukrainian refugee. Noting that the Department of Social Protection has incurred significant costs associated with processing and support of refugees, these funds will contribute to ongoing delivery of supports in this area.