O'Gorman's Department diverted €6m from Ukraine fund to Asylum Seekers - FOI
Eye-watering combined cost to pass €1billion this year
Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman welcomed 1500 new Irish citizens at the RDS on Friday. Pic @DeptJusticeIRL
THE combined cost of providing for refugees fleeing Ukraine and asylum seekers will pass €1billion this year. The spiralling cost covers modular homes, education and child care under the Ukraine fund and accommodation for asylum seekers. The cost of providing for arrivals from Ukraine will rise to €640.8m in 2023, up from almost €600m in 2022.
A separate fund of €363m is operating to cater for growing demand to house International Protection applicants (asylum seekers) in 2023.
The Integration Department declined to specify where this money is coming from.
FOI
The figures were obtained from the Integration Department following a series of queries arising out of documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI).
The FOI documents show that officials at the Department for Integration, under Minister Roderic O’Gorman, diverted €6m in Ukraine funding to the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) - which provides accommodation for asylum seekers - last December.
The transfer amounted to 1% of the overall Ukraine budget.
Approval form the Department of Public Expenditure stipulated the funds be spent within four weeks. The transfer was requested to meet the cost of accommodating International Protection applicants at the CityWest transit hub in 2022.
A spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) confirmed the transfer was approved and said it was due to use of CityWest as a reception hub for both Ukrainians and asylum seekers.
The transfer was completed as part of the same process in which Minister O’Gorman ‘raided’ €1.1million in funding from other department subheads to pay for an LGBTQ+ funding call.
That funding transfer, a process known as ‘virement’ diverted funds from the Magdalene scheme and from Traveller and Roma initiatives.
A DCEDIY spokesperson said:
“In relation to the virement of €6m from Ukraine to IPAS in 2022 – both the allocation and spending which was transferred to IPAS in this instance arose because the Citywest Transit hub was being used to accommodate international protection applicants in addition to Ukrainian BOTPs and this budget and spend in relation to these was more appropriately recorded as part of the IPAS budget spend and was approved by DPER.”
The cost of Ireland’s humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine, is to rise by almost €50m this year.
“The estimates allocation for the DCEDIY’s costs, associated with its role in the humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine, was €593.2m for 2022. Provision was also made in Revised Estimates for 2023 for the continued response to the Ukrainian crisis with an allocation of €640.8m being made available in 2023 to meet these costs,” the department spokesperson said.
TUSLA
“The allocation for 2023 is being provided to meet the costs of providing accommodation for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs), the pledge accommodation scheme and to progress the provision of modular housing, in addition to providing a range of supports for BOTPs across a number of areas such as early learning and school aged childcare and Child and Family Agency services (Tusla).”
A separate allocation of €363m will fund the cost of accommodation for asylum seekers in 2023.
“Separately, an allocation of €363m has been provided in 2023 to the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) to meet the costs associated with the provision of accommodation for international protection applicants,” the department spokesperson said.
The Department failed to answer questions submitted by this Substack on the origins of the €1bn in funding for inward immigrants into Ireland. That query has been resubmitted.
AMIF
Meanwhile, Ireland is approaching the first anniversary of it’s formal opt-in to the common European asylum system, which has a budget of almost €10 billion.
Ireland’s opt-in to the AMIF was confirmed by the European Commission on March 29 2022.
The Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) aims to enhance solidarity and responsibility sharing between the Member States, in particular towards those most affected by migration and asylum challenges.
It has four key strategies in order to strengthen and develop all aspects of the ‘common European asylum system’:
to support legal migration to the Member States, including by contributing to the integration of third-country nationals
to contribute to countering irregular migration and ensuring effectiveness of return and readmission in third countries
to enhance solidarity and responsibility sharing between the Member States, in particular towards those most affected by migration and asylum challenges
The €10bn AMIF fund pays for a range of initiatives, including ‘supporting infrastructures for the reception of third country nationals’ - which covers the ‘possible joint use of such facilities’ by more than one Member State. The funding is designed to support ‘resettlement, humanitarian admission and transfers of applicants for and beneficiaries of international protection.’
Warm thanks to those who support my work, it is much appreciated.
Thank you for keeping us all up to speed and engaged. I live in England and I share your work with other friends and Irish nationals 😊🙏
You can be sure there are plenty brown envelopes involved amongst the facilitators/government. Why else would you ruin your own country and people with dangerous and often fake refugees? The irish government’s time is long up.