CABINET HAS BEEN told this evening that there could be a shortage of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees by the end of April. 

It comes after the Irish Red Cross confirmed that a total of 24,306 pledges for accommodation of Ukrainian refugees have been made by Irish people so far. 

Numbers released by the Red Cross said 5,714 of these are vacant homes and 18,322 are shared accomodation.

This evening’s meeting heard that work is ongoing “with numerous stakeholders” to draw-down the pledges of accommodation made to the Red Cross.

Calls to those who pledged property are currently being made by the Defence Forces, private companies and volunteers. 

The Department of Children have forwarded around 700 properties to Local Authorities for placements, with over 100 other properties sent for allocation to other implementing partners, including the Peter McVerry Trust.

It is expected that around 200 people will have moved to vacant properties by the end of the week. 

The Red Cross hopes to start the rollout of the accomodation next week, starting with individual adults or, for example adult family members who travelled without children

Garda vetting of those who offered shared accommodation will also start next week, so those who came with children can expect to start being matched with hosts soon, according to the IRC.

Shortage

However, the latest modelling exercise assumes 400 arrivals per day, with between 75% and 100% of them seeking accommodation until end of June.

Based on that, it is expected that there will be a shortage of accommodation by the end of this month. By the end of May, there will have been between 29,000 and 33,000 people seeking accommodation.

Numbers seeking accommodation per day are expected to peak at between 300 and 400.

Of the 24,438 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Ireland since the invasion began, 16,128 have sought accommodation from the State. 

The Department of Children has sourced around 10,500 rooms in hotels and b&bs in recent weeks, while 1,271 refugees are currently being accommodated in temporary emergency beds in community facilities.

The number of people arriving has fallen over the last week due to flights being pre-booked for the Easter holidays, Cabinet heard. Arrivals peaked at 465 on 12 April, but decreased over the Easter period to lower the seven-day average to 309.

It is expected that numbers of arrivals will increase again following the holiday period.

Under pressure

Speaking today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Ireland was under pressure, and that the Government wanted to accelerate the processing of offers of accommodation for refugees.

He also said that the country was “close” to requiring mass accommodation centres for Ukrainian refugees, with questions asked about the potential use of the Millstreet Arena in Co Cork.

The Millstreet Arena has capacity for 320 people and is expected to shortly take in its first arrivals. Contingency options also remain in place for centres such as CityWest and Gormanstown Camp.

“I think we are close. I think facilities like that will be deployed as numbers continue to come into the country.

“The situation is very challenging indeed but we have to do everything we possibly can on all fronts to be of assistance and help the people fleeing Ukraine.”

Martin said it was impossible to predict how many refugees might need to be housed in emergency accommodation.

With reporting by Christina Finn and the Press Association