Accommodation of Ukrainian Refugees in Ireland
The Citywest Conference Centre is currently being used as a processing centre for Ukrainian war refugees. The Citywest Hotel in Saggart Co Dublin, the largest hotel in Ireland, may be used as housing for refugees for up to two years, reportedly. The Minister for integration Roderic O’Gorman has said that the Government would seek to use Citywest “for a long time”, although “the cost will be significant”.
The majority of Ukrainian refugees come directly from Dublin Airport, where they are being issued PPS numbers by the Departments of Social Protection and Justice. Approximately 400 to 600 refugees pass through the airport daily. The Conference Centre has 100 temporary beds for refugees awaiting accommodation, a play area for children and an HSE desk to assess refugees with health issues.
Principal officer at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Gerard Hughes described the situation as an “organised chaos” and emphasised the need for long term planning.
A volunteer lead in the Centre, Tricia Nolan, warned that Irish families who wish to take in refugees may not “know what they’re getting into”. “We’ve already had people brought back here and that’s really tough, because then those refugees have to be sent on to new accommodation for the second time” she continued.
There are currently over 15,000 refugees in the State, and Darragh O’Brien, Minister for Housing, has estimated that 200,000 could arrive in Ireland over the following months. He revealed that the Government may use emergency procedures under the Planning Act to establish “temporary or semi-permanent” accommodation to deal with this unprecedented influx of people. 35,000 permanent may be required for Ukrainian refugees.
The minister for Housing also declared that “Right now, we are bringing forward a memo on Ukraine and how we meet over the medium- to longer-term the needs of the refugees that are coming in here and how we can do that to make sure that we protect Housing for All and continue to want to drive down our homeless numbers within the system here.”
The Defence Forces have provided heated tents for approximately 400 people at Gormanston Camp Co Meath, and another 400 people may be accommodated at the Green Glens Arena at Millstreet, Co Cork.
Long term solutions that have been proposed include making use of vacant homes, shared accommodation in Irish households and properties that may be offered by religious organisations or local authorities.
A representative of the Irish Red Cross said that 23,000 accommodation offers came from the public, approximately 6000 of which are vacant properties. Inspections of these properties are being carried out, and Red Cross estimated that 10,000 refugees could be housed in them.
Irish Times report can be read here.