Ukrainian refugees in Ireland - Megathread

Yes it is.

Not in my world thankfully . My family , friends , neighbours etc are very supportive of the Ukrainians . Many of them volunteering in various ways

Well, truth is that some are running from a war, others are more interested in the financial side of things.

I am personally already aware of several cases where people are not declaring that their children have been living here for years. Instead they are availing of accommodation provided to them by Red Cross in a hope they'd be put on a housing list and get their own houses because this is what they were told by someone would happen (even though I am not sure you can get onto the housing list with just a temporary permission).

There are also some who had been working here illegally for a few years and now they are suddenly in a hotel accommodation getting 208 per week, probably managed to get temporary protection status before the relevant department started checking that a person must have lived in Ukraine before the 24th of Feb.

And Youtube videos being posted by newly arrived Ukrainians advertising social welfare rates, saying idiotic things like you can be earning up to 4k and still keep your social welfare or saying things like "Irish are lazy and they like lazy people" as in you won't have to work hard here..social welfare is perfectly enough to live in Ireland comfortably....this is coming from people who haven't worked here yet, have no bills to pay and still living here in a free hotel accommodation having zero experience of the reality of living in Ireland. The problem however is that this stuff is then being watched by Ukrainians back in Poland, Latvia, Czech etc who are still trying to figure out where to go next (because in Poland, for example, you practically get nothing in terms of social welfare benefits) ....watched and believed which results in good chunk arriving here not because they are running from a war as such.

I personally think that yes, assistance must be provided but firstly checks must be performed as well as means testing done, as someone who landed here and still working remotely or living with a family with high income certainly shouldn't be entitled to any benefits. This is pretty standard means testing done to normal residents and should apply to all.

Can you provide some evidence for your claim about what "most people" think?

Most people I know don’t agree with the extent of benefits being handed out. I’m not trying to muddy any waters here. 90% of people I talk to in my walk of life don’t agree with it. Simple as that. Maybe you walk in more lofty circles.

Suppose you could take government party satisfaction poll ratings as a source of kinds.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hahaha sounds like all the myths about "I heard about a xxxx who left her pram on the bus cause she'll get a new one" "Its true my cousins best friends aunties brothers nephews uncle was driving the bus" "It happened in Cabra/Finglas/Ballymun yesterday/last week/last month"

Youtube videos told me about chemtrails poisoning me with flouride and 5g too.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

What are you on about??????

90% of the people you talk to is not "most people'

Do you speak Russian or Ukrainian? How many Ukrainians that came here have you spoken to in their native language?

People don’t agree with it because they see…

• Irish people on housing waiting lists for years.
• irish people losing medical cards.
• irish people paying top dollar for an over burdened and over extended health service and treatments .
• Rises in taxes to pay for it all..

we are intelligent enough to realise a six figure population influx of whom many will want to and plan to stay because we offer a better and safer life… and the supports necessary for them to do so will actually set the welfare of this country and its citizens back aeons…as if the pandemic wasn’t going to be successful enough on its own…

As a result we need more…

• housing
• Gardai
• hospitals… not staff… HOSPITALS
• public transport which can’t service current needs.
• roads

all costing US the taxpayers on the back of a fûcking pandemic… trillions

anyone trying to get on the property ladder… fûcked… supply vs demand is already seeing property prices skyrocketing…. Government buying more stock to gift Ukrainian people? We are fûcked…. You’ll soon see a two bedroom duplex in an average area going for 280,000…

an Irish mechanic who charges 220 for a full service can be undercut by our new friends as they don’t have his overheads, the government are paying ..or actually.. WE are…sorry…. Absolute mad kip… country and ‘citizens’ are going to be fûcked for a decade plus because of this….

Ukraine gets acceded into the EU…. More to arrive.

I have the same evidence you have that people are fully behind the government throwing good money after bad. That’s what my issue is. Not with the need to help families who’ve lost their homes and lives. Let them come and have refuge from the murderous regime in Russia.

You say that they are different matters but on the contrary if the government had more of their house in order on a few other issues then there wouldn’t be the same blow back on this issue imo, it’s an overall dissatisfaction level from certain quarters of the population which exacerbates the issues with this problem and indeed Covid. Rightly or wrongly thats a large part of the truth of it imho.

As for my comment on your circles, in my experience it tends to be people who are comfortable and well off who have the luxury of being able to see the humanistic side more clearly in these circumstances.

Apologies if I’m mistaken.

Most was a bad choice of words. Too sweeping of a generalisation. I’ll correct it to a significant proportion. I’d like to see a poll on it though. Does such a thing exist?