Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has said 10 per cent of Ukrainian refugees who have come to Ireland are now living in pledged accommodation.
“Since the start of the war 45,000 displaced persons have arrived in Ireland, and of those, my Department are accommodating 35,000 of them,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
“Across the summer we had 5,00 Ukrainian displaced persons accommodated in student accommodation, we have been moving people out of that accommodation over the last number of weeks so right now there's about 3,500 in student accommodation.
“This weekend is significant with about 1,500 we need to move out in the context of this weekend. Our focus is on moving people into pledged accommodation.
“We've significantly increased the number of Ukrainians living in pledged accommodation, there are now 3,500 Ukrainians - so 10 per cent of the Ukrainians in the country are now living in pledged accommodation but over the course of this week and this weekend we will be having some reliance on the rest centres that local authorities have been standing up around the country to allow us move Ukrainians out of student accommodation.”
Tented accommodation
Mr O’Gorman said that it was more likely that people would move to community halls with only about 190 in tented accommodation in Gormanstown. He said he had always indicated that the end of August was going to be a difficult time.
“We always said at the start of this crisis that we would offer shelter and we'd offer safety to Ukrainians, we have always done that to all Ukrainians in this country. And at the same time of course, also providing accommodation for people seeking international protection as well.”
When asked if Ireland was taking in more Ukrainian refugees than other European countries, Mr O’Gorman said he did not think there was any mechanism under which countries can refuse or demand proportionality.
The numbers arriving in recent weeks had decreased with an average of 700 displaced persons arriving per week, he said. “We've always been clear we will do our best to accommodate people, but we'd also have open lines of communication with the Ukrainian embassy and they would have an understanding of the pressures that we're under.
“But other European countries are under pressure too - the Netherlands have had significant problems, Scotland and Wales are under pressure as well, we have to call it like it is. This is part of the tactics of Vladimir Putin - whether it's pressure on gas and energy and putting pressure on European countries to try and undermine European solidarity.”
