THE GOVERNMENT HAS asked for “some patience” in placing Ukrainian families with people who’ve offered accommodation, with one minister admitting that the process had been “slower than I’d like”.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman said that moving refugees into shared accommodation “takes time” and that existing systems had to be ramped up significantly.
Providing an update on the numbers involved, O’Gorman said that as of yesterday 27,372 people have fled here from Ukraine, with about 18,000 of those requiring accommodation.
O’Gorman said all these people have been provided with accomodation but that much of this is “not perfect” as it does involve people being placed in congregated emergency accomodation settings.
These include the Millstreet Arena in Cork which began accepting refugees since the beginning of last month.
O’Gorman said his department has contracts for the use 11,500 hotel beds and that some of these beds will “come online soon”. He added that other options are also being considered including the use of student accommodation.
In terms of accomodation being provided by the general public, he said that so far just 700 people have been placed in pledged accommodation, with most of this in vacant units and not in shared accomodation with Irish families.
He said his department was now looking at the vetting process to place people in shared accomodation, stressing that “everyone would agree” about the importance of vetting as part of child protection measures.
O’Gorman said that of 24,000 offers of accommodation that have been made, 32,000 return calls have been made with 6,000 offers being withdrawn for various reasons. He added that some 13,000 of the return calls were not responded to.
The minister outlined that previous offers to accommodate refugees had seen about 600 pledges over the last five years before the Ukrainian crisis led to 24,000 offers in five weeks.
“The process in getting people moved into pledged accommodation has been slower than I’d like,” he said
In response, O’Gorman said that infrastructure and funding to support the Red Cross which is leading the matching process has been provided.
“The process of matching people with pledged accommodation or pledge rooms is ongoing at the moment,” the minister said.
Of course, because we are dealing with people fleeing a situation of really unimaginable suffering and unimaginable stress, that process of moving people into vacant or shared accommodation has to be done right, with consideration of the needs of the people involved and that process does take time.
O’Gorman added: “I want to thank those who pledged their accommodation generously for their patience to date, and for those who we haven’t been able to prepare or arrange for the moving in of a Ukrainian family yet I’d ask for some more patience. “
Plans are currently being considered for the provision of financial support to those who have taken in refugees, with O’Gorman not providing a timeline on a decision and stating only that it was “being actively considered by governments at the moment”.
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