We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
FRONTBENCH SINN FÉIN TD Eoin Ó Broin has defended his party’s stance that people fleeing the war in Ukraine should not have their temporary protection extended until 2027.
Last week, the Irish Government signed off on plans to support a proposal to extend the temporary protection directive for refugees from Ukraine until March 2027.
The directive, which enables those fleeing the war in Ukraine to live, work and study in Ireland, was due to expire in March 2026.
In a press statement issued last week in response to the Government’s decision, Sinn Féin’s justice spokesperson TD Matt Carthy said it was a “mistake” and “problematic” to keep the emergency measure in place.
The Cavan Monaghan TD said it is “now time to treat those fleeing war in Ukraine the same as all others fleeing war and persecution”.
He said the decision to extend the protection has “huge implications for Ireland and yet there has been absolutely no discussion on it”.
He said Sinn Féin’s position is that there should be a return to “ordinary, permanent immigration rules which apply to all other states” and that a person who benefits from temporary protection should be supported to return to Ukraine if they are from a part of Ukraine “that is found to be safe”.
“Beneficiaries who are from unsafe parts of the Ukraine would apply for International Protection and others who wish to continue to stay here could also apply for work-based permits to reside here,” Carthy said.
Asked today by The Journal how Sinn Féin would differentiate between parts of Ukraine that are safe and parts that aren’t, Ó Broin said: “Those decisions are made every day in the international protection system”.
Asked to expand on the rationale behind Sinn Féin’s position more generally, Ó Broin said people from Ukraine need to be provided with a pathway from temporary protection to “full residency”.
“That’s beginning to happen already, and we’re beginning to see a number of Ukrainians apply for and secure international protection.
“Temporary protection is always meant to be temporary, and therefore people need to have a pathway to legalise their status if that’s what they want to do, and that’s why we’d like to kind of move out of the temporary phase and into something a little bit more secure,” he said.
Need more clarity and context on how migration is being discussed in Ireland? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to finding good information online.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They’re correct
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: Totally, how could anyone disagree with this as it makes total sense, and because it makes total sense, FFG are fuming, bottom line, can’t be having the opposition making good decisions!
@H Woo: Woo don’t have a clue.
@H Woo: ‘Foogees’ !! Showing your class as usual.. I hear you’re a racist now, ‘Stephen’
@Finian McG: Well it’s Michael ‘Muslim’ Martin and Simon ‘Hamas’ Harris are the actual Gov and have been for decades.
@H Woo: FFG have flooded the country but you have no problem with that, nor the likes of Healy Raes making millions from them.
@Mary-Jo Lisa O’Callaghan/Murphy Jr.: Ukrainians are from the white race like Irish. So how is that racist? You are using words that you don’t even understand the meaning of. Stop before you continue to embarrass yourself.
It’s a correct and well thought out position.
@Mary BINTon: hiya troll….I see you did a fair bit of cloning accounts at the weekend
@Mary Linton: Are you high or something?
@Lance Taylor: Buster/Mary and you are the site Trolls, along with Rian and Henry Murphy. The real ‘Lance Taylor’ had a 6 moth profile, you can copy his name, but you can’t make it a 6 month old profile.
The Ukraine refugee arrangement in a money processing scam, the Nato proxy war happening in 5% of ukraine imagine FFG trying to get us into NATO wonder why?
@Kevin O Brien: no one is trying to get us in to Nato,thats scaremongering, its a loada $hite pal
They’re 100% correct! They’re not the only people fleeing war & persecution. They should be treated like every other person seeking international protection. There’s nothing special about Ukrainians. This current government are a fn sham!!! Don’t hear much about ukraine & Russia the past few days. I guess they took a break
@Lorraine Kennedy: The core issue is we simply don’t have enough housing—for anyone. Last week, only 2,350 homes were available to rent in Ireland, far below the recommended 10,000–15,000 needed. Thousands of Irish people are stuck in hotels, B&Bs, or on floors. We were homeless for six months after losing our home of 12 years after our landlord died My partner had to move across the country to live with her parents . We found a place only through personal contacts. We’ve been five years on the housing list, likely with years more to wait—as others more in need are housed ahead of us. I’m not xenophobic; I have deep compassion for refugees. But fairness means we must care for those already suffering here too.
@Nemethon: Well charity starts at home!!! There’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that separates Ukrainians from other people coming from other countries. As far as I’m concerned the Ukrainians have been put on a pedestal even before our own irish citizens and given the “special treatment” for long enough now. I don’t really care about the Ukrainians to be very honest..I think they have gotten enough help worldwide. And some are able to go home to ukraine for holidays….where theres a war!!!!!Taking the mxxk as far as I’m concerned. The IRISH must come first. And Ukrainians must be treated like every other person seeking asylum in our country. Our government is a fn DISGRACE and have destroyed our country. I’ve become to hate my own country because of what’s happening!! Shameless b@st@ds in power!!
The IPAS system is a mistake!
Funny how we’re allowed to comment on this article, yet every article pertaining to Israel has “comments closed”.
It’s almost like the Journal are selectively suppressing public discussion for some reason.
@Max Krzyzanowski: Every other article concerning Immigration is closed, this one is open to allow bashing of a certain party.
@Max Krzyzanowski: No comment allowed on article about cost of Govs deportation flights or about Irish MEP’s condemning UvdL’s solo run.
The county is being overrun by unvetted migrants from Africa and the middle east who know nothing about the people who fought and died for Ireland and don’t care. They’re here for the benefits and to take the Irish taxpayer to the cleaners . When Ireland fails catastrophicly they will move on to the next place.
@James: Like the Irish so who fled across the gpobe from what again? Oh yes, no employment in Ireland, open a history book before you start shooting your mouth off.
@Brian D’Arcy: A very woke rebuttal. The Irish when they immigrated to the US, the UK, Australia, or wherever were never given the hand outs that those coming in here are given. Who wouldn’t want to immigrate to Ireland when everything is handed to you while the Irish themselves are broke and homeless
@Brian D’Arcy: They fled to Australia, Canada, England and USA. Why not invite them to Ireland first. How big is the Irish community in Nigeria and Afghanistan?
It’s ok, they’re white so they don’t need to do what asylum seekers have to do when fleeing war, female genital mutilation or downright poverty. The Irish have very short memories and use the British mentality now, ironic because if people fled that didn’t live in the pale they didn’t have a word of English. Over 100,000 brought in when we have a housing crisis so Varadkar could be seen as a great man, never saw payments being made to take in Asylum seekers, hell, charities weren’t allowed to give them tents and the only crime that happened there was the far right trying to burn them out. Two tier system when you’re white coming into Ireland.
@Brian D’Arcy: at least Ireland offers asylum..try going to any of the super-rich Muslim oil states and try to seek asylum. And by the way Eoin O Broin looks ridiculous in that 70s donkey jacket..
@Finian McG: you yourself should try going to the US, Australia, or Japan and try seek asylum. But you won’t get it. You’ll be on the next flight out at your own expense
all orange lads throwing their weight behind fffg with anti sinn fein bashing as they know fffg have no interest in a United Ireland,as immigration is overlooked by fffg who are in government with the majority of votes to pass legislation
Woo don’t have a clue, they a foo.
Loyalist patriots all piling on to blame the opposition for all their perceived problems. Same with the Paul Murphy, or SD stories. Maybe try blaming the actual government for your so-called “invasion”, “plantation” or whatever else Gript are calling it these days. “Woke, lefty, NGO, Sharia Fein” blah blah blah. FFG and their Indo buddies have bent you over and are laughing their rears off.
No surprise there. Sinn Fein has either abstained or voted against motions in the EU parliament critical of Russia since 2014.
@honey badger: As the wind changed direction shortly after Putin began his murderous invasion, Sinn Fein promptly deleted thousands of pages of their views/ statements on Russia from their own website. Cynical weather vanes who’d say mass for a vote.
@honey badger: Just checked there. As recently as this April and May, they’ve voted against EU measures that would support Ukraines economy. Phuk SF.
@honey badger: The context and rational behind that May vote. Not that you ever do contact or rational, just twisted false accusations.
Sinn Féin MEPs have consistently supported the use of sanctions against Russia in response to its illegal invasion of Ukraine. I continue to support the use of sanctions where they put pressure on Russia to stop its illegal war of aggression.
I abstained on this vote as the proposal as put is flawed. There is no impact assessment and there is a lack of proposed price monitoring at member state level. The result is a proposal that may lead to increased prices for fertilisers for Irish farmers, with consequent increases in food prices for Irish consumers
@North Phone Bowe: Here’s a few more.
* 2015 EU Resolution on Russia: Sinn Féin’s four MEPs (Martina Anderson, Lynn Boylan, Matt Carthy, and Liadh Ní Riada) abstained from a European Parliament resolution condemning human rights abuses in Russia, its annexation of Crimea, and its alleged financing of radical and extremist parties in EU member states.
* 2019 Resolution on Crimea and Election Interference: Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan voted against a 2019 European Parliament resolution criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its interference in European elections.
@honey badger:
* 2020 Navalny Poisoning Resolution: Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus abstained from a 2020 resolution condemning the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. MacManus stated he could not support the resolution because it proposed isolating Russia internationally, supporting all opponents of the Russian government, and increasing sanctions.
@honey badger:
* 2022 Resolution on Russia as a Terrorist State: In November 2022, MacManus abstained from a European Parliament resolution condemning Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
terrorism.
*
2023 Sanctions Violation Vote: In a notable deviation, Chris MacManus voted against adding the violation of sanctions to a list of serious EU-level crimes, despite Sinn Féin supporting this measure in the Dáil (Irish parliament).
* 2024 Resolution on Russian Agents of Influence: In February 2024, MacManus abstained from a European Parliament resolution calling for investigations into MEPs acting as agents of influence for Russia.
@honey badger: Sinn Fein, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t think we’ll see the plaintive mewling of that shinner mouthpiece again on this thread…
@honey badger: Any info on all the Deals that the UK, EU and other countries had with Putins Russia for Oil, Gas and the rest in your detailed files about Sinn Fein ?
@Mary-Jo Lisa O’Callaghan/Murphy Jr.: Oh lord save me from the binary minded ramblings of a shinnerbot that has no answer to the disgraceful actions of its party…
You poor deluded creature. You have my pity.
@honey badger: god you really don’t do irony or hypocrisy do you. The EU worked with Putin before 2014, there was plenty of Oil and Gas deals between them, but don’t let that get in the way of your extreme Sinn Fein rhetoric.
Your also extremely pro Israel, you deny the genocide, you lie about that conflict all the time, You have absolutely no morals or integrity.
@Mary-Jo Lisa O’Callaghan/Murphy Jr.: There’s a great phrase i read years ago. I cant remember who wrote it but it sums up your contributions perfectly. Id like you to remember this: ” drivelling in slack-jawed blaggardism”.
@honey badger: Irish MEP’s condemn Ursula’s pro Israel solo run .. but of course comments not allowed on that article, nor the one about the cost of deportations of course.
Did he actually refer to it as ‘The Ukraine’ which is how Russia and Russian supporters of the war refer to it?? Or is that a typo? It’s ‘Ukraine’ not ‘The Ukraine’
@keith fay: a Freudian slip, perhaps.
@keith fay: The word ‘Ukraine’ comes from ‘ukraina’ which is a russian word that means ‘borderland’ hence the definite article – akin to ‘The Netherlands’.
@Uí Braonáin: Ukrainians advise us to drop the ‘the’. It’s Ukraine. Stop stepping over Ukrainians to Ukraine-splain things. It looks silly.
@honey badger: I know but was just explaining why everybody called it ‘the Ukraine’ up until very recently.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Think of it as a milder version of ‘the Republic of Ireland’ that your crowd calls us.
@Uí Braonáin: ah the Netherlands, a fairly sensible Eu member. Ireland has literally never not been the laughing stock of western Europe, as we are reminded a lot more often lately.
Sinn Féin, The à la carte Party.
Most will be granted permission to stay so will then be seeking housing via HAP/social housing, same as the other successful IP applicants. There is already very feew places available so all this will do is increase homelessness. It’s pretty obvious that SF don’t actually want to see the housing problem solved and woudl like to see it get worse for their own benefit and agenda.
These Ukrainians could have gone to west Ukraine where they would have been safe. Instead they chose to go to the countries who gave them the best welfare benefits incl fixing their cars free along with paying for their pets to be flown to Ireland. When it comes to taking the piss Ukrainians have it down to a fine art. The ones who flew home for a 6 week Christmas holiday should have been refused reentry into Ireland. Do not extend the temporary deal but let them start paying for the benefit of being here. I am sick to death of FFG wasting our taxpayers money on this farce.
SF talking absolute rubbish as per usual…….we need to look after our Ukrainian brothers & sisters as long as the heinous invasion of their beautiful Nation persists. Trumps campaign slogan of ending the death & devastation in jig time was just that- an empty manifesto gimmick. Remember …if the shoe was on the other foot….. our Ukrainian friends would’ve welcomed us in our hour of dire need
@Mary Linton: No, they wouldn’t
@Mary Linton: Gobbledegook
@Mary Linton: No, we don’t need to look after them,they all need to return to the comfort of the 80% of Ukraine unaffected by the war.Just fuel up the big luxury 4×4′s and drive back across the length of the European continent,2,500km from whence they came.
@Mary Linton: I very much doubt the Ukrainians would either welcome us or give us even a tiny fraction of the support that our country has given them.
@Mary Linton: Ah Mary, Buster, Lance and yourself giving out about Immigration. Your Busted Mary.
@Mary Linton: word salad from a committed troll
Populism
Shallow gesture from Sinn Fein, who know full well that by virtue of their presence here for the past 3 years they are certs to be regularised permanently.This a Sinn Fein ruse to portray a false tough narrative of being harsh on immigration but covertly manoeuvring the Ukrainians into permanent residency beyond 2027!Next move is to mass importation of the deviant
They should set up offices in Gaza and Kiev pointless them even being here and give Paul a call too and tell him he’s fine where he is.
Irrelevant they aren’t in Government and can’t do feck all about it. They seem to trying to find something every week to become more relevant and get a few headlines. For a party that was built on hating oppression it seems that they favour it now. Putin will be proud of their efforts.
@Paul O’Mahoney: So the opposition to the government is irrelevant? I think Putin would be proud of your comments. He also thinks his opposition is irrelevant
@Ger Whelan: SF are irrelevant , I never said anything about the opposition.
@Paul O’Mahoney: Well considering SF are the opposition you are indeed calling the opposition irrelevant. Good man Vlad.
@Ger Whelan: Hilarious
@Paul O’Mahoney: Not as hilarious as your climb down
@Paul O’Mahoney: you = anti democrat that should be silenced.
They want to make room for Jihadis
If I had to choose I’d rather have the Ukrainian refugees than what SF want to flood our country with
Why are Sinn Fein so incapable of taking an assertive stance on anything. They water down all of their policies in order to gain the Populist vote by talking out of both sides of their mouth at the same time. At one stage I did want to see SF in power but now that they have become so fickle…………
Sinn Fein – the flip flop party, doing another flip flop. That’s not news.
Sinn Fein is one evil party of lies, God help Ireland if they ever get into power, the country will go back even further to the stoneage, think of Afghanistan
@Liam Walsh: Mehole has already brought us back
So how many Irish fled to other Countries because of our conflict with the UK over the years? anyone who says otherwise is a traitor to Ireland
@Trevor Donoghue: Tell me Trevor how many of those Irish who fled here got during our conflicts with the UK get, everything handed to thek such as accommodation, social welfare, expenses paid, when they arrived in the countries they fled to? Please inform me which country gave our people the same treatment we gave the Ukrainians.
@Trevor Donoghue: Not true actually, many fled as there were sweet FA jobs, economif migrants as the far right like to call them and why not, if you can have a better life somewhere else then who can deny them that right?
@H Woo: Untitled?
Sinn Fein love Russia. Their MEPs have voted against every proposal in the European Parliament to provide support to Ukraine.
They’re not fooling anyone. They want the Ruzzian political model in Ireland.
Sinn Fein oh yeah the wind is blowing to the southeast today let’s go with it
Why when every single Muslim Iraqi Irani and everybody else is coming into the country and has the same rights as a tax payer , where does Ukrainian people actually go to work the majority of them not free loading , but u guess under sien feins social policy they want freeloaders everywhere so they can pretend they’re making a difference !
@Bren: Aah yeah, there’s no freeloaders that are Ukrainian!! Stop ffs
This is crazy. A temporary protection is granted, so that when peace returns to Ukraine, the people can return safely. If Ukrainians were to apply for international protection, it would likely be granted, meaning in peacetime, they would have a legal right to remain here. Clearly SF doesn’t understand the difference between a temporary protection and a permanent one.
@Brian Merriman: many of the people they are trying to woo with this move don’t understand that, and they know it.
Absolutely spot on from SF. Bizarre off meds journal addicts will I’m sure have had a field day so I better grab the popcorn, and scroll up. Man, I really am a self sadist.
Fianna fail and fine Gael charlatans OUT the majority who matter do not want you .. majority matters
Scrambling.
We gave number 1 vote to people before profit. Never ever again. Currently looking at all parties and finding that FG is the only party to vote for. Huge disappointment that Leo left politics. How badly we need people like him but they are not there. Other strong figures are Helen McEntee and Roderick O’Gorman. Such people like Leo Varadkar, Helen McEntee and Roderick O’Gorman should rule this country.
.
@Sergej Simonov: as much as you’re not from this country, you need to get educated about the damaging ministerial posts those people have held. Helen mcentee helped to make our capital city and some other big towns reach almost record levels of socio economic collapse and a lot of street violence, all the while lying to people it wasn’t that bad. Varadkar is an unethical and pompous me feiner has been.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Non-TCF/GVL Vendors
have your say