The Government is set to create 10,000 more spaces for refugees in refurbished accommodation, Leo Varadkar has revealed.
The Taoiseach said the first "couple of hundred" of these would come on-stream in "the next couple of weeks" and that the new spaces would help hotels and B&Bs currently housing refugees to reopen for tourists. Mr Varadkar was speaking to reporters at the opening of a new sports hub in Tipperary where he also talked tough on deporting refugees who are here illegally, saying that there have already been 500 deportation orders issued this year.
Mr Varadkar said: "We’re doing everything we can. We’ve experienced a refugee crisis in Ireland the likes of which we’ve never experienced before and never imagined. Nearly 100,000 people have come to Ireland in the past year, mostly from Ukraine, but also from other parts of the world.
