The Government is looking at the possibility of accommodating asylum-seekers in tent-like structures due to a critical shortage of suitable housing.
New figures released yesterday show more than 1,000 people a month seeking refuge here this year, and Department of Justice officials fear they will run out of accommodation in six months.
One option being looked at is canvas pavilions on specially serviced sites around the State. Last week the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, revealed he was also considering using "floating hotels" off the coast.
Yesterday, a Department source said the pavilions were being used successfully in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for asylum-seekers. Officials from the Department of Justice and the Office of Public Works travelled to the Netherlands recently to inspect the pavilions and flotels in use there.
"At this stage we have to look at all options," a Department source told The Irish Times. "If the number of asylum-seekers coming here stays at the rate of 1,000 a month, we will run out of places to put them towards the end of the year."
Figures released by the Minister yesterday show there were 1,840 applications for refugee status in the first two months of this year, compared with 7,724 for all of 1999.
Mr O'Donoghue yesterday appointed two new independent authorities to hear appeals for asylum seekers who have been turned down for refugee status. They are the former DPP, Mr Eamonn Barnes, and Mr Donal Egan, a barrister. A third appeals authority is to be announced in days, bringing the total number to nine.
In an answer to a Dail question, Mr O'Donoghue said a new accelerated system of processing refugee applications has been introduced. This involves ensuring that 75 per cent of asylum-seekers have their first application interview within two months of their arrival here.
He said "manifestly well-founded" cases likely to succeed would get the benefit of refugee status "as soon as possible", while "manifestly unfounded" cases would be eliminated early on. Applicants refused as "manifestly unfounded" could appeal to the appeals authorities.