More than 1,000 people withdraw offers of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees
The Green Glens Arena complex in Millstreet, Co Cork where the first Ukrainian refugees arrived on Wednesday evening. Picture Dan Linehan
More than 1,000 people have withdrawn their initial offer of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees, the can reveal.
A memo, which went to Cabinet on Wednesday and has been seen by the , details the significant burden that the influx of 24,438 Ukrainians fleeing Putin’s invasion will have on the housing situation and public expenditure. More than 16,000 of these people are seeking accommodation.
Around 17,000 emails sent to those who pledged accommodation were asked to confirm their offer. Around 5,000 of those responded positively, with 1,000 withdrawing their offer. Some 878 assumed-vacant properties which were initially offered as accommodation have also been withdrawn.
Peak daily arrival numbers seeking accommodation are forecast to be around 400 per day, and by the end of May, there will be 29,000 to 33,000 people seeking accommodation.
Serviced and emergency accommodation is currently at over 90% utilised, excluding the Gormanstown camp.
Currently, more than 1,271 Ukrainian refugees are being accommodated in emergency beds out of a total of 2,325 available through local authorities if required.
The Millstreet Arena has a capacity for 320 persons and is expected to shortly take in its first arrivals this evening, while contingency options remain in place for centres such as CityWest and Gormanstown Camp.
Significant additional serviced accommodation has been sourced by the Department of Children and IPAS in recent weeks to cope with demand — nearly 10,500 beds.
By the end of the week, 110 people will have moved into assumed vacant properties.
Focus is now moving to placements in shared accommodation, and the Irish Red Cross expects these calls to be completed by the end of this week.
A vetting process is required for moves involving children, and this process is being overseen by the Irish Red Cross, which have been allocated additional resources for this task.
The minimum turnaround for vetting is two weeks.
The most recent figures available show that a total of 3,190 students from Ukraine have enrolled in schools (2,096 primary; 1,094 post-primary) across all 26 counties.
A total of 903 schools now have students from Ukraine enrolled (601 primary, 302 post-primary).
Some 114 unaccompanied minors from Ukraine have been referred to Tusla.
The memo also details the financial pressures of the influx of Ukrainian people fleeing war to Ireland. While it is “difficult” to estimate accurately given the uncertainty around numbers and demographic changes, 24,201 PPS numbers have been handed out to displaced people from Ukraine.
“Based on the assumption that all refugees are accommodated in emergency hotel accommodation and taking account of additional costs for key supports and services (including social protection, health and education) each cohort of 10,000 refugees would lead to an estimated cost of half a billion euro,” it states.
The memo notes that this expenditure cannot be met through the reprioritisation of existing resources, they would, in the first instance, be met with the remaining €2.5bn space in the Covid contingency fund.
"In a worst-case scenario, where disruptions to energy supply become structural in nature, the potential negative impact on industrial production could have major implications inter alia for tax receipts (20% of overall tax take)," it states.
"Ireland entered the current crisis with a very elevated debt burden of €237bn.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
