Ireland’s humanitarian response trumps security checks on arriving Ukrainians, the Taoiseach has said.
Micheal Martin said the state has so far accepted 5,500 people fleeing the Russian invasion and may take in more than 100,000.
He said Ireland’s priority is the humanitarian response to what he termed “the worst displacement of people since World War Two”.
“Our primary impulse is to assist those fleeing war,” he said.
“The Irish people are very seized by a series of atrocities that are going on. What we’re witnessing on our screens every evening is really shocking people and there is huge human empathy there to help the women and the children.”
The Taoiseach led a St Patrick’s Day parade from Piccadilly to Trafalgar Square on Sunday, the second day of his two-day visit to London.
He met Irish NHS workers as well as Ukrainians, as the Ukrainian flag was carried in a show of solidarity at the front of the parade.
Speaking to the media in London he said his family, like others, would reflect on taking Ukrainian refugees into their homes.
“We would all play our part in that, I think these are personal decisions that every family has to take and we will respond in relation to that as a family. We’ll discuss that,” he said.
“We’re obviously reflecting on this, of course, like everybody else.”
Earlier, speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, the Taoiseach said that, of the first wave of those arriving, around two-thirds have family connections in Ireland, but as time goes on fewer have local connections.
He said Ireland could take in more than 100,000 Ukrainians, adding that, while it will be logistically “very challenging”, there is money in Covid contingency funds that could be used.
“This is something Ireland has never experienced on this scale but we believe we need to do it because we believe this is a battle between democracy and authoritarianism fundamentally,” he said.
“It would be very challenging on the accommodation front. On the financial front, again it would stretch, but we did have contingencies in place for Covid-19 in terms of our budgetary frameworks which I think now some of that would have to be used to deal with this situation.
“The sense from the European meeting on Thursday and Friday in Versailles was very much this was the long haul.”
Asked about security checks for those arriving in Ireland, he said: “There is always a balancing of issues, we keep channels open with our UK counterparts – the Home Secretary (Priti Patel) and our Minister for Justice Helen McEntee have been in regular contact.
“I met with the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) yesterday, he paid tribute to what Ireland is doing on the humanitarian front.”
Mr Martin added: “The humanitarian response trumps anything as far as we’re concerned.
“But our security people will keep on monitoring the situation in terms of what’s on.
“We can all see the humanitarian crisis, we do know that that can be exploited by certain bad actors, but our security personnel will keep an eye on that in a more general way.”
He said the view within the EU is that all borders should be open to Ukrainians.
“The Prime Minister’s only discussion with me was on the basis of praising the Irish humanitarian response and no more than that. We didn’t get into the security issues as such.”
Mr Martin also said that, in the longer term, Ireland will reflect on its position of military neutrality.
But he said the current time, in the middle of a crisis, is not the time to do that.
He also said his country is not politically or morally neutral.
“One cannot, in the middle of a crisis, change a long-held policy overnight,” he said.
“The order has been turned upside down by (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin.
“We have to reflect on that as a country. We have to reflect on the cybersecurity threat. It’s not just conventional warfare, it’s the cybersecurity hybrid warfare. It has implications for the European Union, it has implications for Ireland in terms of our vulnerability.
“I believe we should reflect on it without drawing down hard and fast conclusions right now.
“There will be a debate in Ireland but we don’t have time for it right now.”
