Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

68. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details the work of his Department with respect to the refurbishment of large vacant buildings to provide emergency accommodation of Ukrainian refugees. [33084/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 68 together.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is responsible for meeting the immediate and short-term accommodation needs of persons arriving in Ireland from the conflict in Ukraine.

My Department is supporting the wider, cross-Government response in a number of ways, including in respect of multi-unit vacant properties that may be suitable and available for use as accommodation. As part of the initial phase of this work, my Department requested central and local government to identify such properties, including those that may require refurbishment or re-configuration.

More than 500 vacant properties were originally notified to my Department. Some 90 or so, capable of accommodating approximately 5,000 persons, were deemed suitable for almost immediate occupation and my Department has passed these over for use in DCEDIY-led response efforts. A further examination of other properties that are of an appropriate scale is underway.

The Office of Public Works is leading on the modular or volumetric accommodation solutions.