Tomás Ó Flatharta

Press Statement – Government decision ‘heartless and cruel’ and must be opposed says Irish Left With Ukraine

Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU) has condemned as “heartless and cruel” the government decision to withdraw accommodation supports for Ukrainian refugees, and has called on the trade union movement and all progressive forces to immediately launch a campaign to “reject firmly the government’s pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment.”

“In the midst of a housing crisis, the threat to throw 16,000 Ukrainians out of state-provided accommodation will mean evicting many of these people into homelessness,” said ILWU in a statement. “It will mean people being uprooted from their communities, children having to leave schools in which they are settled and have made classmates and friends, and people having to quit their jobs.

Alongside this, the decision to cut and eventually end altogether the Accommodation Recognition Payment will impact directly on a further 42,000 people who are currently accommodated in people’s homes across the country.