Roderic O’Gorman TD has said that he “can’t rule out” the possibility of refugees sleeping on streets as the Citywest Transit Hub closes temporarily to new arrivals.
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said there is a “major constraint” on the capacity available.
Minister O’Gorman said that they would have to prioritise who gets accommodation due to shortages, with women, children and vulnerable people being considered first.
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Last night, there were 881 people in the centre overnight, which was “within the bounds” of previous numbers.
Applications will still be processed this weekend at Citywest, but not everyone will get an offer of accommodation.
The Minister said: “We will work NGOs to provide some services to [those who can't stay]. We will keep in contact with them and when accommodation is available again, we will let them know so they can re-join the process.”
However, O’Gorman said he “can’t rule out” the very real possibility that some will be forced to spend the nights on the streets. He said they are engaging with the Ukrainian Embassy to inform people about this risk.
“It’s not that we have no accommodation available, but we don’t have enough accommodation available if we reach the numbers,” he told RTE’s Morning Ireland on Friday morning.
“That’s why we’re letting people know that if they have an option, if they’re in another EU member state to stay there or look to another EU member state. We can’t guarantee state-provided accommodation into next week.”
An overnight facility in Dublin Airport will be used from Monday, which will facilitate late-night arrivals before they are moved to Citywest the next day.
The Minister confirmed that accommodation is no longer available at Gormanstown, where people had been staying in tents. However, 300 people are still staying in tented accommodation in Ireland, out of a total of 58,000.
When asked whether these people would remain in tents throughout the winter, Minister O’Gorman said: “Those tents are of a higher quality than the tents that were provided in Gormanstown, so they’re more designed for weather events but, look, we’re always looking to try and source additional accommodation.”
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