Jim O'Callaghan: ARP Extended to 2027 - Numbers & Next Steps

I want to start by thanking colleagues for their contributions to this debate and I want to acknowledge and welcome that the majority of the House will be supporting the order to extend the accommodation recognition payment until 2027. I think it's important to acknowledge that this was a very innovative and successful mechanism that was introduced back in July 2022 in order to respond to the fact that Ireland held itself out as a very welcoming place to Ukrainian people who were fleeing the war in Ukraine and who were entitled to apply to be beneficiaries of temporary protection under the Temporary Protection Directive. We saw that approximately 23, I think it is, and a half thousand claims are currently in payment in respect of 42,000 persons who are beneficiaries of temporary protection. So it is having a very significant impact in terms of providing accommodation to people who need accommodation. And I think over the history of the scheme from July 2022 that approximately 64,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection had the benefit of accommodation provided under the accommodation recognition payment. I suppose in many respects one of the great imponderables about this debate is that we simply do not know what is going to happen in the war in Ukraine over the next year or so. As has been indicated, temporary protection has been extended until 2027 and there will obviously be discussions later this year, early next year, in respect of what should happen to the Temporary Protection Directive. To a large extent, I suspect it is dependent upon what happens in the war over the summer, but also I think there is a recognition amongst my colleagues who are Home Affairs Ministers within the European Union that the Temporary Protection Directive cannot be seen to be a permanent directive. There will have to be some recognition of its temporary nature. I think that the scheme when it was introduced originally back in 2022, that is the accommodation recognition payment, it very much was welcomed that there was a payment of €400. Predominantly that payment was for the purpose of giving recognition to the charity of Irish people who opened their homes to Ukrainian people and it was very effective. It then subsequently increased to €800 and numbers did rise in respect of it, but as has been indicated by my colleague Minister Brophy and as TDs will be aware, from the 1st of June last year, the monthly payment was reduced from €800 per property to €600 per property per month. There was a concern at the time on the part of Minister Brophy and myself and in fact officials indicated this could have happened, that it could have a very destabilising impact on the accommodation that was provided. Fortunately, we've seen that that has not been the case and we still have a situation where 42,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection are being accommodated pursuant to the ARP. As has been indicated, we're going to extend it now subject to the approval of the House until 2027. We will also be discussing with colleagues the proposed reduction further back to its original statutory limit of €400 and Minister Brophy and myself will carefully consider that, discuss it with colleagues and come back in due course. In terms of the Sinn Féin amendment, we won't be supporting it and it is interesting to note that Sinn Féin have very much sought to rely upon the impact the scheme had on the rental sector. My own assessment in terms of when you look at the payments that were involved, I know it's tax free, but when you look at the payments involved in the location of the units, predominantly the type of unit or property that was provided pursuant to the accommodation recognition payment was a property that hadn't previously been used in the residential tenancies market. As of from last year, of course, we changed the law to ensure, in fact it's this year, Part 3 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2026 precludes properties from the scheme that were registered with the Residential Tenancies Board at any time since March 2022. So that concern that Sinn Féin has and had is now alleviated by the change in the statutory regime that was brought in by my colleague Minister Brown. So I thank people for the debate and I look forward to their support when it comes to voting on the motion.