Q&A: How and why have we run out of accommodation for incoming refugees?

With thousands of people living in emergency accommodation due to homelessness, this is something of a perfect storm for the Government

Ukrainian refugees outside the CityWest Hotel where they are being temporarily accommodated. Picture: Moya Nolan

The news that the country has run out of State-provided accommodation for asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees has raised a number of questions, primarily about how Ireland plans to respond to the crisis and whether it has the capacity to do so.

How did this happen?

The simplest answer is that all available accommodation is full. Ireland has taken in more than 40,000 refugees from Ukraine alone since February. 

Around 30,000 of those have been offered accommodation, with others staying with family or other connections. This comes at a time when available accommodation was already scarce and heading into the summer tourist season. 

With thousands of people living in emergency accommodation due to homelessness, it is something of a perfect storm for the Government.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, private homes, holiday homes, hotels, B&Bs and 4,250 student accommodation places have been used across the country.

However, some hotels did not renew contracts coming into the summer and promises of pledged accommodation fell well short of initial offers.

Now, the convention centre in Citywest, which opened as a processing centre for Ukrainians and asylum seekers in March, is operating well beyond capacity, with dozens of arrivals sleeping on chairs and people being asked to sleep on floors in Dublin Airport.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien TD and Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

There has also been what the Taoiseach called a "surge" in applications through the international protection system. Micheál Martin on Thursday suggested that part of this had been caused by the UK's policy to deport people to Rwanda. 

He said that the reasons would be analysed but "intuitively and anecdotally" it appeared that people were going around the UK's system to come to Ireland.

While the Citywest Convention Centre was initially opened as an overflow facility for the processing centre in Dublin Airport for Ukrainian refugees, the majority of those now “stuck” there are asylum seekers from other countries applying under the International Protection Service (IPS) system.

What's the plan from here?

In the short term, the plan is to open the Gormanston facility to those arriving. 

The Defence Forces camp in Meath has had a tented village built on it in a bid to house hundreds of people, akin to the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet. 

But that has always been a last resort, so the Government is pressing on with plans to find suitable accommodation in larger buildings like convents. 

Later in the autumn there will also be modular homes for 2,000 people, though state sites have yet to be found.

Are we still in an emergency phase?

Effectively, yes.

The Government has since February scrambled to throw as large a chunk of resources at this issue, but with hundreds of people arriving daily and no sign of an end to the fighting in Ukraine, a long-term solution has been difficult to come by.