A resident of a Clare Direct Provision Centre insists the Government must do more to encourage households to host and support refugees and asylum seekers.
It comes as the cabinet sub-committee on Ukraine is meeting this afternoon to try to find solutions to the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
A temporary accommodation unit will be opened tomorrow, to house Ukrainian refugees.
The country ran out of space for new arrivals over the weekend, with 43 people refused housing by the state on Friday and Saturday.
Increasing the payment to holiday home owners who offer their property for accommodation is one of the solutions set to be considered by ministers, when they meet for crisis talks this afternoon.
Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne says Ireland won’t be refusing any Ukrainians entry, by putting a cap on the numbers.
The Coordinator of the Clare Immigrant Support Network says it’s not surprising we’ve reached this point, but says it doesn’t take away from the fact that huge numbers of Ukrainians have already been housed.
Orla Ní Eilí believes, however, that a single agency needs to be set up to incorporate all departments, with a view to examining short, medium and long-term planning.
She believes there has been a very fractured approach to date.
A Knockalisheen resident says it was evident from the start that accommodation was going to run out, with Direct Provision centres having reached capacity in 2018.
Bulelani Mfaco, who’s a spokesperson for MASI; the movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, has criticised the Department of Housing for a slow response in dealing with crisis and a lack of long-term planning.
He believes the state must do more to encourage people host refugees, saying the uptake of pledged accommodation has been too slow.
Meanwhile, a free event is taking place at the Templegate Hotel this Wednesday evening from 7.30, for people in Clare who are currently hosting or thinking about hosting displaced people from Ukraine.
Volunteer Clare has partnered with Helping Irish Hosts, Clare County Council and Clare Local Development Company to share information on supports and services are available for host families and Ukrainians.
Listen back to the full interview here:
