The decision by an interdepartmental committee to advertise in the newspapers for accommodation for asylum-seekers outside Dublin provides a clue to one of the reasons for the accommodation crisis in Dublin.
While Eastern Health Board officials have been ringing hotels and private landlords trying to beg, coax and cajole beds for asylum-seekers, there has been precious little sign, said one source, that their counterparts outside Dublin have been trying to help.
In fact, said this source, the clear impression EHB officials have been getting is that, when it comes to asylum-seekers, local authorities and health boards elsewhere "don't want them".
This suspicion is also voiced by Mr Kensika Monshengwo, chairman of the Association of Refugees and Asylum Seekers. He wonders how 1,000 Kosovar refugees could be accommodated outside Dublin and why, although some of these have gone home, there is no sign of places for asylum-seekers from other countries.
Asked if he thought there was a racial element (Kosovars are white) he said: "We don't know that for sure, but there are many elements to suggest that."
It is an absence of planning which one Eastern Health Board source blames for much of the chaos. The State failed to plan a response to the phenomenon of asylum-seekers arriving and has been caught in crisis management, the source said.
State-controlled, short-term accommodation, perhaps in disused convents or other locations, would greatly ease the situation, the source said. Currently the EHB spends £1.2 million a month for 2,600 asylum-seekers in bed-and-breakfasts and hotels.