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21st March 2022
10:49am GMT
Photographer: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie.[/caption]
“From our point of view, watching the news every night of Ukraine, it’s very hard to watch what we’re witnessing on our continent, in our neighbourhood, and wanted to help out in some way,” he said.
People have got involved through the Irish Red Cross who are monitoring the pledges in conjunction with the Irish government. You can find out more on their website here.
Mr.O'Gorman said the allocations will begin with vacant properties with the majority of Ukrainian refugees in Ireland currently residing in hotels.
“Over 20,000 offers have come in from Irish people across the country, a huge show of generosity and my department are looking to start to activate some of those accommodation options now, starting initially with options of vacant housing," he said.
The government is also looking at block booking hotels in the likely scenario that a higher number of refugees arrive.
Mr. O'Gorman said that like other EU countries, Ireland is preparing for tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the coming weeks.
“I think that’s necessary to ensure that we have rooms for people when they arrive in the country, and we’ve been doing that over the last two weeks,” he said.
He stressed the importance of being prepared; “I think we have to be ready in case there’s a sudden surge of people arriving at our ports and airports and in a crisis situation like this.”
The government has made it clear that there will be no funding for those who open their homes to refugees.
“What we’re really saying to people is that this is an altruistic thing, not something we would intend to pay people to do,” said Mr.Varadkar.
Feature image by Sam Boal via Rollingnews.ie.
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