Around 750 Ukrainian refugees housed in former nursing homes

Around 750 Ukrainian refugees are being accommodated in former nursing homes or unused blocks of existing nursing homes around the country, the Department of Children and Equality has said.

More than 42,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Ireland since Russia’s invasion of the country on February 24th.

The Government is under increasing pressure to find suitable accommodation, as the number of arrivals into the country continues to rise.

On Thursday, it announced the Citywest reception hub for refugees would close to new arrivals as the centre reaches capacity. Minister Roderic O’Gorman on Friday confirmed he could not guarantee that new arrivals would not end up sleeping on the streets.

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To date, the department has contracted about 25 per cent of hotel beds in Ireland, alongside hostels, guesthouses, pledged accommodation, sports stadiums, scout facilities, tented accommodation and modular units.

A spokesman for the Department for Children said there are currently around 750 Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary International Protection (BOTPs) being accommodated in former nursing homes or in unused blocks of existing nursing homes around the country.

“The Department is not in negotiations with any operational nursing home. The Department will only contract with disused nursing homes for the provision of accommodation,” the spokesman said.

“The Department is engaging with the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure that only disused nursing homes are used for accommodation.”

In April, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) provided a list of nursing homes that had been deregistered since 2019, and which could potentially be used to house Ukrainian refugees.

However, in a letter, obtained by The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, chief inspector of social services Carol Grogan raised concerns with Siobhan McArdle, assistant secretary of the social care and mental health division of the Department of Health, on the topic.

Ms Grogan said she was concerned these discussions could “potentially create a situation” in which a provider of a nursing home considers “closing the nursing home in order to provide an alternative service”; considered “accommodating refugees on the floor of a nursing home building”; or provided accommodation “that is potentially unsuitable for the number and needs of people being proposed”.

“These concerns are significant and have the potential to have a negative impact on the wellbeing of vulnerable people,” Ms Grogan said.

Ms Grogan added that the impact on Ukrainian refugees’ human rights must be considered “especially around potential restricted access to communal space, easy egress to and from the building, kitchen facilities, and availability of outdoor space”.

A spokesman for the department has previously said the policy on the use of nursing homes is that BOTPs must be accommodated separately from residents of the nursing home and must not displace any current nursing home residents.

Hiqa also conducted an inspection of some of the nursing homes being used, according to a briefing paper presented to the July board meeting, with “preliminary findings” suggesting there was no impact on the residents’ quality of life.