For Ukrainians asking if time on temporary protection counts towards citizenship, no clear answer from the government

Polina Afanasieva is growing used to her life in Dublin, she says.

“Just yesterday, I went to dance classes, and I was so excited about it,” she said on Saturday morning, sitting outside Costa café in Smithfield. 

Afanasieva is young and smiley. She works in insurance at the moment, she said. 

Afanasieva arrived here in April 2022 under the EU’s temporary protection directive, which unlocked the zone for Ukrainians fleeing the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.

The only thing that clouds her new life, she says, is uncertainty about the future. 

Like whether the three and a half years she’s spent living here count towards citizenship, she says – because she plans to stay. “We’re not sure about citizenship at all,” she said. 

The EU activated its Temporary Protection Directive in March 2022. Between then and February 2025, a little over 114,460 people claimed residency rights in Ireland under the law, official figures show. 

The Central Statistics Office estimates that roughly 75 percent of those people are still here, said Minister for Justice Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan at the Dáil back in March. 

Those who, like Afanasieva, arrived early on and stayed, are now a year and a half or so away from having spent five years in Ireland – the span that, for many immigrants, is needed to be eligible to apply for citizenship. 

But the government is being vague about whether the years lived here under the temporary protection directive count towards the five years needed to be eligible to apply.

Wendy Lyon, partner and solicitor at Abbey Law, says they do. Any time spent here on any immigration permission counts towards citizenship unless the law says it doesn’t, she says. 

The Citizenship Act excludes years lived on a student immigration permission Stamp 2, time spent in the asylum process under domestic asylum law without winning status, and any stretch of time lived undocumented. 

“Residence on the basis of temporary protection is not excluded by the legislation and therefore it has to be reckonable,” Lyon says.

Albert Llussà, immigration lawyer at Daly Lynch Crowe and Morris solicitors, says the same as Lyon. It’s correct to say it counts towards citizenship, he said. 

But for Ukrainians like Afanasieva casting around for answers, information is scarce. Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, didn’t offer a clear answer either when asked about it at the Dáil recently.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice also did not directly respond to a query asking if there’s anything currently in the law disqualifying time racked up on temporary protection from contributing towards citizenship. 

And they did not directly answer a follow-up query asking if the time amassed so far currently counts. “The Department has no further comment at this time, pending the outcome of further discussions at EU level,” they said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin, the largest opposition party, objects to citizenship entitlement for the scheme.

That’s because it’s meant to be transient, said Matt Carthy, the party’s spokesperson for migration and justice through its press office. “It could not be expected to count towards reckonable residency.”

That’s not how the law works, though, says Lyon, the solicitor. For that to happen, the Minister has to tweak the citizenship law to explicitly exclude years racked up on temporary protection, she said. 

The law minus official reassurance 

The Department of Justice’s Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) and Citizen Information websites don’t mention citizenship entitlements for Ukrainian refugees on temporary protection in Ireland.

In July, Minister O’Callaghan pointed to how the fate of the directive is up in the air, while skirting a response to a question about citizenship rights from fellow Fianna Fáil TD Michael Cahill. 

The EU Commission is still sketching out a plan for the future of the directive, he said. “I cannot pre-empt the outcome,” O’Callaghan said. 

He didn’t say if these past years on the scheme count towards citizenship under the domestic citizenship law, under which all citizenship applications are made. 

In October 2023, Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee TD, who was then Minister for Justice, seemed to imply they do count.

But since protection status for Ukrainians was slated to run out in 2025 at the time, she said they couldn’t collect five years of it to apply. 

Now the directive has a new end date, March 2027, meaning people who moved here in March 2022 would have the five years' residence needed for Irish citizenship by then.

“Even if the EU decides not to renew temporary protection for Ukrainians again after next year, those who are able to change to another reckonable status can still count their years on [temporary protection] towards citizenship,” said Lyon, the solicitor. 

Afanasieva, the Ukrainian woman in Dublin, said it would mean a lot to her if her years counted. 

So, when she applies for a work permit and a residence permit based on that, she knows she only has to wait a little more before she can apply for citizenship, said Afanasieva. 

The big reconsideration

Sinn Féin TDs like Carthy have been vocal about opposition to not just the citizenship rights of Ukrainian refugees, but also the decision to extend temporary protection.

Carthy says his party is “strongly of the view that continually extending temporary measures is not a sustainable solution and is problematic for everyone”.

Sinn Féin wants the temporary protection directive stopped to give “Ukrainians certainty about their future in Ireland and about supports for returning home for those who will want to do this,” he said.

Those of them who are from “unsafe” parts of Ukraine can apply for asylum under domestic asylum law, Carthy said. Those who don’t want that option can apply for residency off the back of work permits, he said. 

On the other hand, Carol Nolan, the independent TD, questioned the decision by some Ukrainians to apply for asylum under domestic law. 

Asking O’Callaghan at the Dáil in May “why they did not choose to be treated under the process provided for under the EU Temporary Protection Directive.”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has dialled up its offensive on Ukraine in recent weeks as it defies demands for a ceasefire from the US President Donald Trump.

Low hum of uncertainty 

Carthy – on behalf of his party – also has been vocal about objecting to a monthly payment of tax-free €600 for those hosting Ukrainian refugees.

It’s known as Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP). There’s no scheme like that for people running away from war and atrocities in the Middle East.   

Carthy said by email that “Sinn Féin raised serious concerns about the ARP because of its impact on the rental market and because it's unfair in that it offers to one cohort of people a non-means-tested housing assistance that is not offered to others.”

But the government says it aligns with its vision of moving away “from a reliance on tourism and hospitality settings for accommodating [Ukrainian refugees]”, says a press release dated March 2025.

It has saved money for the government, “diverting thousands of [Ukrainians] away from State-contracted accommodation,” said Fianna Fáil TD Norma Foley, the Minister for Children and Equality. 

The ARP is meant to “recognise the valuable contribution of those who host [Ukrainian refugees]”, said Foley, in the Dáil in March.  

“Some 37,600 Ukrainians are currently in over 20,000 properties under the scheme,” she said.

That includes Afanasieva. She worries about the future of the scheme and what happens when it stops, she said. “Many people started to pay on top of that because ARP actually went down a little bit,” she said. 

Though originally set at €400, it rose to €800 in December 2022. But under pressure,  the government lowered it to €600 this year “to mitigate any unintended impact on the private rental sector”, according to a March press release. 

“We actually don’t know if the programme will work with us next year,” said Afanasieva. 

Angie Gough of Helping Irish Hosts, a non-profit set up to help Ukrainian refugees find host families, said that its funding from the Irish Red Cross has also been cancelled. 

The Red Cross had earmarked €1 million for them from its 2025 budget for Ukraine response, but “withdrew it without clear explanation”, she said. 

She had to let people go, and is working with a “skeleton crew of volunteers”, said Gough.

The Irish Red Cross has not yet responded to a query sent on Friday asking why it made the change. 

As for ARP, Sinn Féin is still against it despite the lower pay rate.  

On 3 July, Carthy told the Dáil that the ARP scheme was “deeply unfair and caused huge divisions within communities”.

He said he’s been called “heartless” for expressing these views. 

On Friday, he said similar things in an email through the party’s press office. That the ARP has affected the rental market. “And that landlords are using the ARP because it is financially advantageous to them in that they get a tax-free payment,” he said.

Foley, the Minister for Children and Equality, told the Dáil in March that ARP is for those hosting Ukrainians in their home and not meant to “substitute rent”.

“The ARP scheme does not apply where there is a rental agreement in place,” she said. 

The government plans to roll out curbs to stop landlords from moving their properties under ARP now, said Carthy.  

But that’s “too little too late,” he said. “Sinn Féin is calling for a full review of the ARP.”

Back in the city, Afanasieva says she’s immensely grateful to the Irish government for embracing people like her and for any support it has offered.

Some Ukrainians have opened their own businesses here and pay more taxes. “To give back, not just receiving,” she said.

Her heart fills with joy to see them around, said Afanasieva.