Pledges from householders across the country to house refugees from Ukraine are not as had been anticipated, the Taoiseach has said.
Mr Martin said Ireland has to move fast in terms of going through all the pledges, not all of them have been processed or gone through and there’s some opportunities there.
The Government is now considering ways of financially rewarding peopel who do take in refugees from the war-thorn country into their homes.
Asked about people living in large communal halls, he said the number of public pledges of help “is not as large as originally anticipated”
Mr Martin said: “I think that’s something that we’re not ruling out, but that’s something we can examine. Initially, it was never to be a monetary situation but you know, given in terms of the sustainability of that model, that’s something that would always be under review.”
He added it is going to become extremely challenging because over 20,000 people have come into the country in a matter of weeks.
Such an influx is unprecedented in terms of anything we have experienced before in relation to refugees fleeing a conflict zone and a war, he added.
About 21,000 refugees have arrived into the country from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Of those, about 13,000 are being accommodated in State-provided accommodation, Mr Martin told Newstalk’s On the Record.
