The first contract to deliver 500 modular homes for people from Ukraine fleeing the Russian invasion will be completed in early 2023, Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan has said.
Mr O’Donovan said the homes will not all be sited at Defence Forces barracks, but also on land provided by other public bodies including the HSE, Office of Public Works, local authorities, the Department of Defence and others.
To date, Ireland has accommodated up to 56,000 men, women and children from Ukraine, with thousands of children attending primary and post primary school, and more than 10,000 Ukrainians working.
However, the Government has warned that refugees could end up sleeping on the streets due to the accommodation shortage.
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Last week it emerged that about 350 refugees would need to leave the Crowne Plaza Hotel Northwood in Santry, where they have been staying for months, as the Government’s contract with the facility was coming to an end.
Paul Gallagher, a hotelier speaking on behalf of the Irish Hotels Federation, said hosting Ukrainians “is not a very profitable business”.
“Many hotels who have done it did so because we came out of Covid and would have had no idea how the market would be, so nobody would have any idea that tourism would have rebounded as strongly as it has done,” he told This Week on RTÉ Radio 1.
“Hotels in larger urban areas or cities will probably [be] least likely give a whole hotel over to Ukrainian refugees, while maybe more rural hotels who are out of season for tourism will view it as a good way to keep the business afloat over the winter.”
Mr Gallagher added that housing refugees in hotels was an okay solution in the short-term but said it would not work in the long-term.
“Hotels are not designed long-term to house people in living circumstances. Living in a hotel room for six months or 12 months is not what a hotel was designed to accommodate,” he said.
Mr O’Donovan defended the Government’s handling of the situation, saying that 60,000 people, the equivalent of 1 per cent of the population, have arrived in Ireland since February.
“We’re not the only European country that are experiencing huge influxes of this nature. Seven million people have been displaced internally in Ukraine, and millions have left the country,” he told RTÉ’s The Week In Politics.
“I don’t think anybody saw seven million people moving out of Ukraine last February.
“And it isn’t only Ireland, Belgium is under serious pressure.
“The Netherlands are under pressure, all the Baltic countries and eastern Europe,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“We’ve placed a contract with a principal contractor and work is starting in the initial 500 houses that has now been decided to grow by the Government to an additional 200.
[ Ukrainian refugees warned they may end up sleeping on floors in IrelandOpens in new window ]
“On top of that, we’ve placed orders for 250 houses with the subcontractors so we’re on track to deliver.
“We hope to see the completion of the first [houses] in the first months, January and February, of 2023, which is actually on schedule from the original plan.” – PA