Tents to be primary source of housing for newly arriving Ukrainian refugees

As of Tuesday, the first of hundreds of refugees will be housed in tents at the site of Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/ RollingNews.ie

The Government has said it expects tented accommodation will become the primary source of housing for newly arriving Ukrainian refugees from next week arising out of an accommodation shortage.

It comes as the Department of Integration confirmed that due to a "significant" shortfall in accommodation, tents will be used for new arrivals in the coming days.

As of Tuesday, the first of hundreds of refugees will be housed in tents at the site of Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois.

Minister of State Ossian Smyth said he did not view tents as being a long-term solution to the accommodation shortage.

“We have been using tents in a military facility up to now as a last resort. In the last four months, we have had 10,000 Ukrainians arrive in the country. The rates at which they are arriving has increased," he said. 

"We are now faced with a real short-term difficulty for the next few weeks. And the Government has contracted to take over the tents that were at Electric Picnic over the weekend. 

"Today or tomorrow, up to 750 Ukrainians will be moving into those tents but that is obviously a very short-term facility. Six weeks I would expect.

The Government has shown an ability to put huge quantities of accommodation online. They are accommodating more than the population of Galway City at this stage. 

"In one year they have come up with temporary accommodation at that speed and I fully expect they will be capable of housing those Ukrainians at the end of the six weeks," Mr Smyth told RTÉ radio.

In December last year, Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman said no asylum seekers were in tents countrywide and every effort was being made to ensure this solution would not be used again.

“All our use of tented accommodation has ceased. We worked extremely hard to end that situation [of people being in tents] and we have ended that situation. But it is indicative of the real pressures that the system is under.” 

Mr O’Gorman said in mid-December they had been “upfront” with authorities in Ukraine in terms of how “tight” the accommodation situation is in this country.

“We are letting Ukrainians know that the accommodation situation here remains tight. That we are not always in a position to provide people with accommodation on the day they arrive.

"But since that period of time [the weekend when some people were turned away from Citywest] we haven’t had that situation since then. People have continued to be accepted in Citywest and accommodated.”