Holiday home owners should receive allowance to accommodate Ukrainians, say refugee council

The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) has urged the Government to give holiday home owners €300 to €400 per month to allow their properties to be used by Ukrainian refugees.

Chief executive of the IRC Nick Henderson told Newstalk Breakfast, that a voluntary pledge scheme would help to encourage holiday home owners to open up their properties to refugees making their way from Ukraine to Ireland.

“We are recommending a voluntary holiday home pledge scheme. If you own a holiday home and it is vacant, you could pledge it to be used by refugees for say a minimum of six months and in return you would receive a monthly allowance, not at market rental rate.This, we believe, would significantly assist in the accommodation of refugees.

Mr Henderson said the compensation from the Government to holiday home owners would in all likelihood hugely increase the pool of properties available to refugees.

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“The IRC paper recommends approximately €300 to €400 per month and that would be a sizable amount of money over six months.

It wouldn’t be the rental rate still though it would be an amount of money the owner could use for their own means.

Crucially, it might encourage people to do a good thing and bring on more and a greater supply of accommodation to meet this challenge.”

Meanwhile, the IRC has also called on the Government to support refugees through the housing process. The council also maintains that some of the emergency solutions being utilised in response to the war in Ukraine could be used as longer-term alternatives to Direct Provision.