"There is a limit on our capacity, and we are very much at that at the moment"

Leo Varadkar said there is a limit on Ireland’s capacity to provide for asylum seekers and people fleeing the war in Ukraine before adding, “We’re very much at that currently”. He went on to say that the Government did not know if it would be in a position to provide accommodation to another 50,000 people “if that number arrived over the course of the next year”. The Taoiseach also told the Dáil yesterday that there is now a lot of “secondary movements” to Ireland, with Ukrainians who have been living in other Western European countries moving here to access the better social welfare benefits and supports on offer. “It’s a long-standing issue with international protection,” he said. “People who have been living safely in other parts of Western Europe for a period of time, then coming to Ireland and claiming asylum. “Some of this is linked to the fact that we have a better offering in Ireland than would be the case in Northern Ireland or Britain or France or other countries that are not too far from us and that’s why we have to review the situation.” #immigration #ireland #ukraine