The Government is working to provide an extra 10,000 bed places for refugees, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Plans for additional accommodation include refurbishing buildings and modular homes.
The new spaces are being provided to allow hotels and B&Bs currently housing refugees to reopen for tourists.
The first couple of hundred of beds are expected to be open in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, modular homes are now ready for occupation now in Cork and more are being built.
Mr Varadkar said that Ireland faces a real challenge as ‘numbers keep coming in’ from Ukraine and other countries.
“We’ve experienced a refugee crisis in Ireland, the likes of which we’ve never experienced before and never imagined,” he said.
“Nearly 100,000 people have come to Ireland within the past year, mostly from Ukraine but also from other parts of the world and it is actually a considerable achievement that we’ve managed to provide shelter and accommodation for almost all of them.”
He continued: “We now have about 10,000 people living in people’s homes or in homes that were empty and have been pledged for accommodation.
“But the real challenge that we face is that the numbers keep coming in.
“There are still people arriving from Ukraine fleeing war there and of course, like all countries, thousands of people from other parts of the world seeking international protection here.
“So, it’s going to be a real challenge to get ahead of that because where we’d like to be is to get ahead of that and be able to start decanting people out of hotels and B&Bs and freeing up that accommodation again for tourism, but it’s hard to see when exactly that is going to be.”
The Taoiseach added that nearly 500 deportation orders have been signed this year to send away those who are looking for asylum without a genuine reason.
