Households will receive €4,800 a year for taking in refugees as retrospective payments become due from July.
he cabinet will this morning finally approve the 400-euro monthly payment for households that take in refugees. That Irish Independent assumes that homeowners who have given refugees their second homes will also receive the payment.
It is paid into bank accounts by the Department for Social Protection, with funding provided by the Department for Children.
Households are understood to have to apply to receive the payment, which aims to support families hosting refugees by helping pay for expenses such as food and electricity bills.
New laws must be introduced for the payment to be introduced.
Senior government sources could not say last night how much the measure will cost as it would be “demand driven”. However, it is understood that around €20-50 million has been budgeted for the payment.
The latest figures assume that more than 30,000 refugees have arrived in the state since the beginning of the war.
The Red Cross said yesterday that 10,200 homes have been released for refugees through housing pledges, which would cost nearly €49 million a year with 12 monthly payments of €400.
So far, however, fewer than 900 refugees have been accommodated in these homes.
Despite early proposals paving the way for the payment to be processed through the Inland Revenue and included on payslips, Social Protection Secretary Heather Humphreys agreed that her department would process the payment instead.
The measure will be formally endorsed by ministers after being given the go-ahead last Thursday at the first meeting of the cabinet’s subcommittee on the country’s response to the Ukraine crisis.
The government hopes the payment will encourage more people to open their homes to refugees.
Source: independent