As the Deputy knows, Ireland remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine. My Department continues to work as part of a whole-of-government response to the war in Ukraine with a focus on providing access to emergency, but temporary, accommodation to those fleeing the conflict. For new arrivals, State-contracted accommodation is provided for 30 days in designated centres, together with supports to assist them in making independent living arrangements for those who wish to remain for the duration of temporary protection. As of 13 March 2026, over 125,700 people have fled Ukraine and received temporary protection here. Of those, over 94,300 have requested and been provided with access to State-supported accommodation. Almost 19,200 people are currently in State-contracted accommodation. This is a significant and welcome reduction from a peak of, believe it or not, 60,000 people in November 2023. All accommodation contracts by my Department are temporary in nature. Persons with temporary protection are advised of that when requesting access to be assigned to temporary accommodation. Approximately 531 contracts are in operation. Our current contracted accommodation capacity is approximately 22,450 beds. It includes hotels, guesthouses and bed and breakfasts. In sourcing and securing accommodation, the central consideration is the safety and security of the displaced people fleeing the war in Ukraine. In 2024 and 2025, approximately 420 and 195 contracts, respectively, were able to be terminated in terms of changes that we are making in the reduction in numbers. So far in 2026, 25 contracts have been terminated and we have received three notices from providers for termination of contracts. In relation to County Clare, as of the end of February 2025, there were 31 contracts, which was equivalent to 2,610 beds. To give the Deputy an indication, as of the end of February 2026, there were only 18 contracts, with 1,041 beds, representing a very significant return of beds from this area. Additional information not given on the floor of the House With this reply, I am providing the Deputy as requested with a table that shows the number of contracts and beds by county at the end of February 2025 and end February 2026. *Please note that the figure for Dublin includes Citywest with 1,704 beds.
Sentiment score: 0.11
I have supplied the Deputy as part of my answer to him a table in tabular form with all the information for every county. I have outlined the total figures to him. It is important to recognise that, as part of an ongoing process, we are moving toward a reduction and eventual elimination of this accommodation situation. There will be a motion coming forward in the Dáil next week regarding the extension of the accommodation recognition payment, ARP. Temporary protection is something that was brought in by the European Commission across Europe, and we wanted to support it in that. As we look to the future and changes in that area, though, we want to see businesses going back to what they were doing originally and having the ability to put beds and accommodation back into local communities for the benefit of those local communities and areas.
Sentiment score: 0.21
Obviously, that is not within my area. That would be more within the area of the Minister with responsibility on the tourism side. From our point of view as a Department, what we want to do is facilitate the return of beds to the sector so that they are there and available. Like the Deputy, I would like to see, particularly in a wonderful county like Clare, that those beds would go back into the accommodation, tourism and hospitality sectors. Hospitality and tourism are key drivers for economics in a whole host of counties in our country and are very important. Therefore, as an initial stage, what we are doing here is making the beds available again by terminating the contracts and moving out of this area. I would hope, therefore, that in conjunction with the local authorities, the necessary tourism boards would put in place a process to ensure that those beds go back into hospitality.
Sentiment score: 0.27
I thank the Deputy. The accommodation recognition payment was introduced to recognise the generosity of people who opened their homes to provide accommodation to beneficiaries of temporary protection in Ireland who fled the war in Ukraine. The ARP scheme is provided in Part 2 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 and is administered by the Department of Social Protection on behalf of our Department. The scheme involves a monthly payment of €600 to a host in respect of providing accommodation in accordance with the rules of the scheme. The ARP is not rent and is not payable where there is a rental agreement in place. The scheme currently extends to March 2026 but it may be extended by ministerial order - as I mentioned earlier, a motion will be before the Dáil next week in relation to that - in accordance with the legislation. The Deputy may be aware that motions are to be considered in this House and in the Seanad next week that will extend the scheme to March 2027 in line with the current application of the EU temporary protection directive. By the end of February, the ARP scheme had supported over 42,000 temporary protection beneficiaries accommodated in over 23,500 properties at a monthly cost of approximately €14.5 million. I am providing in tabular form with this response the information sought by the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.28
The scheme has worked, but the time for the scheme should come to an orderly conclusion. Like all temporary schemes, I believe you must look, introduce where needed and phase out where it is no longer appropriate. It is therefore my view that we will be extending the scheme as indicated for 12 months. This will be part of a phasing out process of the ARP. It will also be the intention to reduce the payment from €600 to €400 as part of that phasing out of ARP. That will enable us to have a gradual winding down of the scheme. Ukrainians who have enjoyed temporary protection in Ireland are a welcome part of our community. There are many opportunities for them to avail of housing in their own right and many Ukrainians are doing so at the moment. We will work to a process of making it very clear the ARP scheme will be coming to an end and will have a phase out on it. I want to make that clear to the Deputy.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I acknowledge what the Deputy is saying but we have to remember how the process of temporary protection came about. It was a temporary process in reaction to accommodation being made available to provide for Ukrainians who had fled from a war. It was designed and put in place as a very particular measure and to facilitate people welcoming people into their homes. It is something for which its time and place is naturally coming to a conclusion. There is a better and fairer way to do it, which allows everyone to have the same access rights to accommodation. The longer term position for Ukrainians who either will or will not return home at the end of the war is that we are putting in place a situation where access to accommodation will be equal and fair with everybody else. While I acknowledge what the Deputy is saying about the scheme and some of its benefits in freeing up accommodation, at this point the best way to deal with it is the orderly wind down we are proposing and moving to the next stage.
Sentiment score: 0.11
I begin by joining the Deputy in offering my sympathies to Deputy Colm Burke. The registration office of the Department is currently experiencing an exceptionally high demand for immigration permission renewal applications. This has regrettably reduced the timeline of the service to our customers. I understand that the extended wait times can be frustrating for applicants but I assure the Deputy the Department is exploring every avenue available to facilitate as many customers as possible. I had a meeting with my officials on this matter in the past couple of weeks, primarily to increase that processing capacity. The registration office is already open seven days a week to facilitate customers, with a team working considerable overtime as well to try to facilitate this. Further measures are being put in place to reduce processing times. I expect this will address the delays currently being experienced. The registration office also provides a live processing date, which is updated every Monday, and is available on the website of the Department. It is currently processing applications submitted from 22 December 2025. It is open to customers to submit their applications up to 12 weeks in advance to allow sufficient time for an application to be processed and I would encourage people to take advantage of that. Deputy Burke mentioned employers and the legality of employment to me, and I am sure he intended to mention it today. We have issued a notice to employers regarding the legality of employing someone awaiting renewal. That notice is also available on the website, so there should be no ambiguity in that area for employees who are worried, or for employers in terms of this.
Sentiment score: 0.06
I will do so. As part of that assurance, it is important to say if a person's IRP card has expired and he or she is unable to obtain his or her new one by the expiry date, he or she is still legally permitted to remain in the State. His or her existing IRP card has another maximum of 12 weeks. I fully acknowledge it is frustrating and worrying for people going through this process but, again, I assure the Deputy resources are being put into it to try to eliminate the delays being experienced because of high volume and demand and that we believe we will be in a much better position in terms of catching up and providing the service in the timeline we would like to see for everybody going forward.
Sentiment score: 0.33
We want an efficient and effective service that allows for the fact of those 12 weeks and the fact people are getting a turnaround. There are some exceptional reasons for the surge in demand in terms of the number of people applying. There are particular surge points at different times a year where the numbers go up. We are putting the technology and the systems in place that we believe will allow us to manage this and deliver on the timeline we want to see for people getting their renewals.
Sentiment score: 0.24