The Department of Sport has confirmed that it has been contacting sporting bodies to see if there are any sporting venues available to house Ukrainian refugees on a short-term basis.
The Government is coming under increasing pressure as around 3,500 Ukrainians living in student accommodation will have to move out over the coming weeks as students return to college.
It is understood refugees are being asked to take up pledges of accommodation with almost 3,000 people now accommodated this way.
The Government is hoping additional hotel accommodation will come online through September and October when the tourist season comes to an end.
Following a report in the Business Post, the Department of Sport told RTÉ News it had been asked by the Department of Children to contact the GAA, the IRFU and Sport Ireland looking for accommodation.
It said: “The organisations responded positively to the request and any accommodation offers arising were the subject of direct engagement by the department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth with the sports organisations.”
A number of Ukrainian refugees were accommodated at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for a week earlier this month, but have now been moved to alternative accommodation around the country.
More than 43,000 Ukrainian people have arrived in Ireland so far and it is anticipated that there could be around 50,000 in Ireland by the middle of August.
The State is providing accommodation for over 32,000, which equates to 76% of arrivals.
Of this number, almost 29,000 are in serviced accommodation such as hotels, while another 1,134 are in emergency accommodation and 2,700 people are in pledged accommodation.
As the State comes under increasing pressure to accommodate refugees from Ukraine, there have also been unprecedented arrivals of people from other countries seeking international protection.
The Government is continuing to seek a second transit hub for refugees as Citywest is under pressure to facilitate the high numbers.
The number of people staying in Citywest at any one time varies, but the Government said there were between 500-600 people there this week.
