Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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New legislation to bring into effect a revised approach to supporting new arrivals from Ukraine has been implemented from 14 March 2024.

Under the revised approach, anyone fleeing the war in Ukraine who seeks State-provided accommodation in Ireland will be accommodated for a maximum of 90 days. During this time, they will be provided with food, laundry, other services and integration supports in Designated Accommodation Centres.

Standard social welfare payments will no longer be available to a person while they are resident in Designated Accommodation Centres. Instead, a person will be entitled to a weekly allowance of €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child, in respect of daily expenses. Entitlement to Child Benefit is not affected by these changes.

When they leave the Designated Accommodation Centre, or if they make their own accommodation arrangements on arrival, they will be entitled to apply for standard social welfare assistance, subject to meeting the standard eligibility conditions.

The Government has made these changes in order to continue to meet the EU Temporary Protection Directive requirements, whilst aligning more closely with other EU Member States approaches.

An estimate of any possible savings as a result of this change is not available at this time. This is due to the number, range and uncertainty of variables involved, including the future arrival rate of beneficiaries of temporary protection, the future State accommodation provision rate for that cohort, the future demographic composition of that cohort, and the projected future employment rate of any portion of that cohort not housed in a designated accommodation.

Separately, I understand that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth estimate costs associated with this new payment as being in the order of €8.5 million in 2024.