Just 159 Ukrainian refugees housed in accommodation pledged by the public

Although there have been about 25,000 pledges to host Ukrainian refugees, 3,800 — 16% — have been withdrawn by families who changed their minds. Picture: AP/Emilio Morenatti

Just 159 Ukrainian refugees have moved into accommodation pledged by the public since the war broke out.

The low figure is believed to be due to the suitability of properties for accommodating families fleeing the war zone and the time it takes to make each one available.

Although there have been about 25,000 pledges, 3,800 — 16% — have been withdrawn by families who changed their minds.

In addition, the Irish Red Cross — to whom the pledges were made in the first place — is unable to contact another 9,000 of the people who made the pledges.

However, a recent blitz, which saw 17,000 emails being sent to pledge makers resulted in 8,755 replies, of which about 7,000 confirmed they were still pledging accommodation.

The voluntary body’s general secretary Liam O’Dwyer said to date, the details of 2,400 pledged vacant houses have now been handed over to the Department of Integration, which handles refugee accommodation.

The details of another 3,400 shared accommodation pledges are currently being assessed and graded by Irish Red Cross officials and are due to be handed over to the department shortly.

Garda vetting of those shared properties, where children are involved, started yesterday.

The charity, which has so far raised €30m for Ukraine, will now be concentrating its efforts to deal with another 6,000 to 7,000 properties that have been pledged.

“I think 3,800 have withdrawn their pledge and, look — a lot of this is that people in their generosity immediately thought ‘Yeah, I'd love to do that. That's something that's a contribution I'd like to make’.

"Then over a period of time, because it takes time to ring 25,000, people change their mind, people's circumstances change, people may not have discussed it with the rest of the family.

“Also people [realise] this is for six months. We are asking people for six months because we know refugees need time to settle in a place.

“That is what's best for their own wellbeing."

In terms of suitability of accommodation pledges, he added there was a variety of pledges that needed to be ranked in terms of suitability because not all of them are for the six months required and not all of them include an actual bed.

He said: "We're going through the shared properties list, just to see precisely what's available because sometimes it's one bedroom, sometimes it's much more and sometimes it's a couch.”

A Department of Integration spokesperson said: “The department continues to work as part of the whole-of-Government response to meet the immediate accommodation needs of those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

“Ireland is resolute in its solidarity and support for Ukraine and huge efforts are being made to source accommodation for those arriving in Ireland.

“On average, 500 people are arriving every day from Ukraine and this is understandably placing a significant strain on our capacity to provide new accommodation.

“As of April 19, over 159 people have moved into pledged accommodation and this will increase over time."