More than 1,500 Ukrainians will be affected when almost 90 hotels end accommodation contracts with the State between now and the end of October.
A number of hotels across popular tourist destinations, including almost 20 accommodation centres in Co Kerry, will now either return to the hospitality industry or may adopt another State contract for international protection.
The Government is winding down its contracts with commercial accommodation centres for beneficiaries of temporary protection who arrived in the Republic before March 2024.
Figures from April show that 16,000 Ukrainians were staying in more than 500 hotels and B&Bs which had been paid for by the State. Last month, the Department of Justice contacted about 5,000 Ukrainians in 190 accommodation centres to inform them that their arrangements would end in October.
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The Government has now published the details of 88 hotels, part of that group housing 1,554 people, which will no longer accommodate Ukrainians after October.
They include the Hookless Holiday Village in Wexford and the Imperial Hotel in Lisdoonvarna. Both had been accommodating up to 200 Ukrainians each.
The Kinsale Hotel & Spa Lodges in Cork, where 76 people have been living, and the Galway Coastal Cottages accommodation, where 69 people have stayed, are also due to end their State contracts by the end of October.
There are 19 guest houses in Kerry which will stop housing 254 Ukrainians over the coming weeks and months. Ten hotels and guest houses in Galway and eight in Donegal will return to either their original tourist use or alternative State contracts.
Another six accommodation centres in Cork and six in Wexford will also wind down their offerings for Ukrainians.
In June, the Government told 900 people at the former Citywest hotel that the State would no longer provide accommodation for them. The former Saggart hotel is now the largest State-owned international protection accommodation centre after it was bought by the Department of Justice.
The department, Irish Red Cross and International Organisation for Migration are providing information to those affected. “As part of this, residents will also be supported with information on options for independent living,” it said.
People living in the hotels and B&Bs “who can demonstrate that they continue to require temporary accommodation post-commercial accommodation wind-down” will be able to apply for extra support.
The Government has already agreed to end the accommodation recognition payment scheme, which previously paid €800 a month to those providing beds in homes for Ukrainians.
The scheme was reduced to a payment of €400 per month in May and will be wrapped up next in March.
The department said that after the initial 190 contracts end, about 350 will still be in place. “Residents at these centres will be contacted in later phases,” it said. “People have the option to apply for ongoing accommodation, and as this process is still under way, it is not yet known how many contracts will remain in place at the end of the process.”
