As part of Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien's plan to house Ukrainian refugees, vacant social homes will be brought back into use.
As reported in the Irish Examiner, Mr O'Brien is set to bring a memo to Cabinet on Tuesday which outlines medium and longer-term housing options for addressing to Ukrainian refugee crisis.
So far, more than 25,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland, with the Government struggling to find suitable accommodation amid the ongoing housing crisis.
The Minister for Housing's plan incudes expansion of the voids programme whereby vacant social homes will be brought back into use.
Local authorities will also have greater flexibilities to acquire certain homes under an expanded acquisition programme.
Mr O'Brien already has emergency powers available to him under existing legislation which allows certain planning and procurement requirements to be exempt when needed in order to speed up delivery in emergency situations.
Some 529 properties which could be utilised have been identified. However, most of them will need refurbishment.
It is expected that up to 1o0 of the properties could be in use in the coming weeks, while another 80 could be available within three to six months.
The Government is also planning to restructure some departments in a bid to peed up housing allocations by private citizens after complaints that people were not being contacted and pledges to house refugees were not being fulfilled.
It comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the State will not put a cap on the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland.
