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OVER 6,000 PEOPLE who have fled Ukraine have been accommodated in Ireland since February.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said that from 25 February to 25 March, 12,057 people have come to Ireland fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
Of those, 6,201 people have been placed in temporary accommodation by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
The department said that IPAS will continue to “ramp up operations” to ensure that the increased demand can be met.
To date, 2,773 long-term hotel rooms have been contracted, with additional short-term room capacity also available. That number is increasing “at a steady pace”, the department said.
There have been 22,657 pledges of both shared and unshared accommodation made through the Irish Red Cross. 4,896 of these relate to vacant properties.
The Defence Forces have so far made contact with the owners of 1,112 vacant properties to arrange inspections. 820 owners have agreed to inspections, while 218 owners were not contactable and have to be contacted again. 74 owners have withdrawn properties.
Speaking on the crisis response, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said that Ireland “remains steadfast in our solidarity with the plight of people who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine”.
“Since the onset of this war, my Department and I have been focused on providing reception accommodation to those in need. The scale of response to this crisis has been unprecedented, and the Irish people have displayed an incredible level of generosity in their pledges of support and accommodation,” he said.
O’Gorman said that his officials are “continuously working” to source further accommodation and supports for the high numbers of people who continue to arrive every day. “On 24 March, of 862 arrivals, 633 sought accommodation, the highest number to date,” he said.
“The accommodation available through local authorities, religious organisations, State bodies and pledged accommodation is unlikely to meet the level of need should the higher estimated numbers of people arriving come to pass in the weeks ahead.
“As such, we have put a number of contingency options in place. These include the use of arenas and conference centres such as Millstreet and Citywest, as well as the use of Gormanstown Camp.”
O’Gorman said that although not the department’s first preference, it is a contingency that may soon be used, adding that every effort will continue to be made to ensure that use of this type of accommodation is temporary until more suitable accommodation becomes available.
The department is in advanced discussions with Airbnb and The Open Community regarding temporary accommodation being provided to those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine in Airbnb listings around Ireland. These discussions are expected to conclude in the next few days.
The department is also continuing to engage with religious orders to identify properties which may be suitable for use as accommodation for those fleeing Ukraine.
The head of Tusla said yesterday that children as young as 12 are arriving unaccompanied from Ukraine and being taken into care by Irish authorities.
Bernard Gloster said that the Child and Family Agency was caring for 14 Ukrainian children out of 95 youths across the system who are separated from their families and seeking international protection.
He said that Tusla had received 32 referrals of unaccompanied minors since the start of the war, 18 of whom were admitted to care. Four of those children were later discharged after being reunited with family or relatives.
Of the 14 children taken into care from Ukraine so far, one is in residential care, nine are with foster families and another four, who are around 17 and are heading towards adulthood, are in supported lodgings.
The UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said that nearly 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion a month ago, with half of the country’s children are now displaced.
In total, more than 10 million people – over a quarter of the population in regions under government control before the invasion – are now thought to have fled their homes, including nearly 6.5 million who are internally displaced.
UNHCR said that 2,173,944 people have crossed into Poland so far, but Polish border guards put the number even higher, at 2.2 million.
Some 563,519 Ukrainians have entered Romania, including a large number who have crossed over from Moldova. 374,059 Ukrainians have crossed into Moldova, while 330,877 Ukrainians have fled to Hungary.
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I am struggling to remember a single thing this government have managed properly.
Apart from their numerous pay rises.
@Andrew Martin: working day and night to legitimise the pay rise for working day and night to legitimise the pay rise.
@Andrew Martin: errrr how about Ireland ranked 20th highest in full vaccinations? And a working tracking app, how about us not going the way of the UK. We ate doing a lot of right things. Sorry to ruin your massive failed whinge
@Paul Furey: Your opinion is in the minority now unfortunately
… People want the country opened up.
@Paul Furey: ha, a tracking app that chewed through battery power and didnt work 100%, 20th while vaccinating a relatively small population and what way are the UK going? Fully open soon and more vaccinated than us?…… I get that you’re pro govt in the majority of your posts but in reality they’ve handled this crisis very poorly on many levels. Poor communication, leaks, conflicting info, not protecting the elderly in the first wave, afraid to lock down initially while watching everyone else lock down(26th in europe to do so), not engaging with heavily impacted sectors, nearly a year in level 5 and not managing the economy through the whole thing, rules that dont make any sense, taking ages to enforce masks for a airborne disease, not making use of rapid testing. And theres prob more.
@Paul Hedderman: the UK also had 50 deaths today, the highest number since April. Do you want that here too?
@Paul Furey: The only thing this inept government can agree on is on how to F..k things up.
@Sam Harms: Adjust for population. Thats like 3 – 4 deaths here…. And they had 6 yesterday. Thats why 7 day moving averages are better stats to look at to get a more accurate picture.
@Paul Hedderman: in the past 7 days they have had 213 deaths
@Sam Harms: thanks sam. Thats an average of 30. This time in their second wave when they had slightly higher daily cases they were getting around 600 deaths a day. Big difference….. Thankful the vaccienes are being rolled out
@Sam Harms: Thanks also for proving my point. 50 is way worse than the 7 day average of 30. 66.6% more infact.
@Paul Hedderman: so you don’t think an average of 30 people a day dying from covid is bad? How many people are you willing to sacrifice?
@Sam Harms: in the UK, no, thats very good in regard to fighting the virus. Thats like 2 people a day here…… Around 2 people die a day here during flu season. Never any restrictions for that and most people go on with their daily lives unaware. While any death is sad for the loved ones humans get sick and die all the time. We live beside viruses and illness every day of our lives, unrestricted pre covid. We’ll get to a stage with covid where we’ll live unrestricted, hopefully limiting deaths as much as possible, but there’ll probably still be deaths. People need to realise that.
Typical..right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing….
@Paul Somers: typical….moaner
@Paul Furey: is ‘whinge’ your favourite word, Paul?
@JedBartlett: He seems to have an extremely limited vocabulary:)
@Paul Furey: i never tire of seeing you whinge about other people whinging.
Do they ever talk to each other before telling the public stuff?
@Ballybough Marcus: no they haven’t the intelligence
Misunderstanding something they are brilliant at
@Keith O Hanlon: Yes exactly, this is what the email says:You can use your certificate to facilitate travel across EU member states during the Covid-19 pandemic and on the actual cert it mentions that this is not a travel document
@Keith O Hanlon: Yes exactly, this is what the email says:You can use your certificate to facilitate travel across EU member states during the Covid-19 pandemic and on the actual cert it mentions that this is not a travel document
@d: Well thats actually a contradiction in terms as they are saying you must have it, or a pcr / antigen test, to travel.
So if you do not receive the covid passport by email having been vaccinated in June, and are flying on the 19th of July…..and there is no call centre no to contact ? you seriously could not make this up….
@Linda Oreilly: Well wouldn’t that be a little bit silly, booking for the very day the restricitions are up? In Ireland. Where nothing runs on time.
@Tom Tom: And its that sort of attitude that contributes to these shortcomings. “Ah shur we’ll be grand” instead of saying get your overpaid asses into gear get it done properly.
@Linda Oreilly: Is it not going to be available on the Covid tracker app as well? You’d have that to show?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: yep I got my Covid Vaccine Passport via email late last night. No more PCR tests!!
All i can think of anytime one of these eejits make a statement is a chant you would here at a foitball match ” You don’t know what you’re doing”
@Derek Lyster: just waiting and hoping for a slight slip up by theGovernment and the Shinners and lefties are out of the woodwork…the rest of us agree that a good job is being done in extreme and unprecedented situations.
@john gavin: I’m neither a Shinner nor a Leftie as you so condescendingly put it. I would just like our vastly overpaid representatives to do their jobs properly. Not try to rush through legislation that has in no way been thought properly through so they can go on holidays. I for one don’t agree that they, have or are, doing a good job.
@Franny Ando: But that’s exactly what a Stalint-Trotskist-Marxist-Lefty-Commie would say!
Seriously though, it self expires in 3 months and they can’t do it the right way anyway because it’s constitutionally *very* sketchy and likely wouldn’t pass muster. They are lucky they have Michael D to sign it tbh. I doubt some of our previous presidents would.
So, yeah, it’s rubbish, but at least it will put itself in the bin in October so I don’t see the need to stress it.
@John Considine: But remember they are also saying it can be extended beyond Oct. So let’s hope it is put in the bin:)
Michael Martin looking a bit unwell these days
Ahh the good old “GANFYD” approach: “Get A Note From Your Doctor”.
Doctor’s notes waste huge amounts of time and aren’t as valuable as most folk believe. Waste of your own money and your doctor’s time in many cases.
We need to move away from this business of medicalising everything. Why would you need a doctor’s note to eat out, go on holiday etc? Surely that’s the Dept of Health’s decision.
Tried to ring the number today as my cert has the wrong name on it. Rang once then disconnected. This happened 10 times. Looks like they’re getting paid not to answer the phone.
The Mrs. Received her cert today but is disappointed that it can’t be laminated due to the glare from the paper which prevents the digital machine from reading the QR code.
So what’s the phone number then ?
I got mine through my gp but at a hse vaccination centre. God only knows if or how I’ll get one. I better call the helpline. Oh no wait, its not set up yet.
Got phizer in a country outside the EU. I wonder will they accept my covid vaccination certificate!
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