About 10 of 500 properties identified for Ukrainian refugees are housing people, O’Gorman says

Only about 10 properties out of 500 identified as having the potential to accommodate Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion are housing people, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said.

Mr O’Gorman told RTÉ's Prime Time programme on Tuesday evening it is “fair to say the refurbishment scheme is behind schedule”. He said between 400-500 people are accommodated in these buildings but that many more state-owned buildings had proven to be unsuitable when investigated.

“When they were investigated it was seen there was significantly more structural work that was needed to make them habitable for Ukrainian families,” he said. The refurbishment scheme is run by the Department of Housing.

There are around 2,000 pledged properties still “in play” the minister told the programme, while admitting that the original system for allotting people to pledged properties “wasn’t perfect”.

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“Undoubtedly the mechanisms that were in place weren’t ready for the scale of pledges we received,” he said. “I recognise there have been problems in the system and I believe they are based on the fact that the overall infrastructure when it started wasn’t designed (to handle the level of pledged accommodation)”.

He said that while the modular housing programme would be expanded to accommodate another 800 people, he didn’t expect units to come on stream until after the new year and that “hotels will continue to be a significant part of our plan into the medium term”.

“We have an existing housing crisis,” he told the programme. “The way in which we could swiftly accommodate the vast majority of Ukrainians was through hotel accommodation”. He said that “by and large” the system designed by the state to accommodate those fleeing Ukraine had done well but that it remained a “significant challenge” facing the Government and the population generally.