Ukrainian refugees face accommodation crisis as supply limits reached

Fears are emerging about a significant pinch point in the availability of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees over the summer, ahead of a key Cabinet subcommittee meeting on Monday.

Government sources said internal modelling shows a need for an additional 6,000 beds across all accommodation types — from hotels to emergency accommodation and pledged rooms — by the end of August.

Senior Ministers will on Monday assess the impact of several thousand beds in student accommodation being gradually withdrawn as they return to college use over July and August.

The Cabinet committee on accommodation and supports will meet on Monday afternoon. It will hear that there are about 5,000 pledged accommodations which remain to be filled, with additional supports being put in place to encourage Ukrainians to take up these places. However, the current rate of arrivals, twinned with the ending of student accommodation availability, is set to “create a significant challenge later in the summer”, one source said.

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Work is ongoing between the Department of Children and the Department of Housing to source medium- and long-term accommodation options. But Coalition sources warned over the weekend that “the limits of supply to those already here are now being reached”.

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The entire reception system for those seeking refuge from overseas is coming under increasing strain. RTÉ reported that large numbers of asylum seekers from places other than Ukraine had been forced to sleep on the floor at the Red Cow hotel in Dublin and on makeshift beds in conference rooms.

The department said the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions had seen a “significant increase” in people seeking international protection in Ireland, averaging out at 1,400 per month — on top of the war in Ukraine, which has seen 23,000 refugees from that country accommodated by the State.

“It has therefore been necessary to create a temporary resting area in a pre-reception centre — the Red Cow inn. [It] consists of a seating area in the ballroom and dormitory-style accommodation with beds and showering facilities.” It said people stay there for 2-4 days, typically, while awaiting accommodation elsewhere.

It said an acute accommodation shortage is being experienced over the summer and the conditions in the hotel — which it is responsible for — “falls far short of what the department would wish to offer to those who flee here”.

“However, in very difficult circumstances at present, it was necessary.”

During the weekend, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar urged a World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Geneva to work together to ensure Ukraine can export its grain this year. He told the conference that “EU sanctions do not apply to food or medicines and we must work together to ensure that Ukraine is not prevented from exporting its grain this year.”

“The war has seriously disrupted global food supplies. In Ireland we are lucky to produce more food than we can eat but I’m conscious that is not the case in many nations.”