Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 13, 19, 30, 50, 65, 72, 73, 298 and 306 together.

I thank the Deputies for their questions. I am sure everyone joins me in condemning in the strongest possible terms the illegal aggression of Russia towards Ukraine, which at this stage appears to be designed to create the most possible suffering for civilians. I am sure all Deputies will join with me in extending a hand of welcome to Ukrainian refugees as they arrive in our country.

Since the outset of the Russian attack, I and my Department have been focused on providing reception accommodation for Ukrainian refugees in need. From 25 February to this Tuesday,19 March, 10,414 Ukrainians have come to Ireland. We have established dedicated teams at Dublin Airport to meet new arrivals from Ukraine, with teams from the Departments of Social Protection, Health, and Justice and from my own Department. Alongside that we have hubs in Cork and Limerick cities to support new arrivals. We are establishing a hub presence at Rosslare Port. Officials from these Departments are ensuring that every person arriving is met and given support as soon as possible.

We have specifically prepared reception areas and they include designated spaces for children and adults and quiet spaces. The international protection accommodation service, IPAS, of my Department has temporarily taken responsibility for providing accommodation to Ukrainian refugees. A dedicated Ukraine unit is being established to manage the provision of accommodation and related services to Ukrainian refugees. To date almost 5,000 Ukraine nationals have sought accommodation from IPAS.

My officials are continuously working to source further accommodation and supports for Ukrainian arrivals to Ireland. So far, IPAS has contracted over 2,500 hotel rooms, with additional capacity also being pursued through accommodation pledged by the general public, where there are 20,000 pledges on the register; State-owned or private properties which may be suitable for short-term accommodation; religious properties; and local authority facilities. My Department has worked with local authorities which played a pivotal role in securing short-term accommodation. We have engaged with the City and County Management Association, CCMA, about drawing on emergency accommodation in community centres, if necessary. Dublin City Council provided some emergency accommodation last weekend and we have engaged with convention centres about installing emergency accommodation in those facilities and with the Defence Forces about options if existing capacity was insufficient.

All of this work is being undertaken. However, I have to be clear, open and honest about the scale of the challenge facing the State. Over the past month, we have been contracting hotel accommodation. This week, we are going out to pledged accommodation. Right now, this is our primary source of accommodation. Over the coming weeks we will get a better sense of wider accommodation through local authorities, religious organisations and State bodies. Some of this may require renovation. This accommodation is unlikely to meet the level of need should some of the higher estimated numbers of people arriving come to pass.

If we are to offer people shelter and security, we have to have contingency options and these are being put in place. These include the use of arenas and conference centres such as Millstreet and CityWest, as well as the use of Gormanstown. It will not be own-door, and may mean camp beds in shared spaces. It is not our first preference. However, it is there as a contingency if at some point it becomes needed. We have a war on our borders and we are facing a humanitarian crisis on a scale we have never seen before.

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