*Treacy’s Oakwood Arms Hotel in Shannon is among the hotels in Clare housing Ukrainians.
CLARE’S CURRENT MANNER of accommodating Ukrainian refugees is not sustainable, the Chief Executive of Clare County Council has said.
Latest figures show that of the approximate 78,000 Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection in Ireland, 4,400 are living in Co Clare. One third of the total figure are of school going age while 18,000 have taken up employment.
97 offers of unoccupied homes have been made to the Council through the ‘Offer a Home’ scheme, a total of 151 Ukrainians are now being accommodated in this way. A further 80 people are accommodated in hosted accommodation through the Irish Red Cross.
A need to “carefully plan for long-term accommodation and other necessary services in order to regularise” the support for 4,400 individuals was flagged by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND). He said adequate housing had to be put in place “to address the huge need” and added, “a number of accommodation providers are considering the cessation of the arrangements in place and individual home owners are operating on a yearly agreement”.
Jason Murphy who is leading the Council’s response on the crisis confirmed, “In Clare to date, the majority of Ukrainian beneficiaries have been accommodated in multi-occupancy settings through the hotel network. There is a recognition that the range of accommodation solutions available needs to be diversified while also recognising the fluid nature of the crisis and uncertainty of the timescales”.
Murphy added, “The OPW are currently assessing all publicly owned land nationally and while the current phasing of modular type housing is not being focussed on County Clare it is likely that this type of solution is being considered”.
Cllr Flynn who chairs the Council’s Housing SPC stated, “It is not going to be a short-term accommodation issue, it is long-term, we have a duty of care to be mindful and positive of”. He felt modular housing needed to be considered for the county”. Modular housing is a short-term answer while he felt the long-term solution was to build houses.
Providing new houses is the biggest challenge for the Council, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) believed. Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) commented, “the phasing of modular accommodation should be a priority and open up those beds for tourism”. “A lot of the Ukrainians thought they would be home by now, we need to look at this in the crisis,” Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) stated.
Housing continues to be a complex need, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) acknowledged while calling for action with the medium-term issue. Plans for long-term accommodation are needed, said Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) as he outlined that 91 people recently applied for a two bedroom house in Corofin.
Communities of Clare have “wrapped their arms around the Ukrainian people that have come here,” Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) observed, he continued, “a fairly significant chunk of these people are not going to leave, we need to be mindful of that and see how it is going to be fitted into our communities”.
Having viewed modular homes in Limerick last week, Cllr Mary Howard (FG) admitted that she was very impressed with the solid structures. Cllr PJ Ryan (IND) told the meeting he was not in favour of people living in the Shannon Industrial Estate. Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) outlined, “We were able to build houses and do work in the past, it’s a complete step back with the regulation now, we don’t have the power now. The Ukrainian people living amongst us are contributing hugely to society”.
Chief Executive of the Council told the meeting the “current situation remains unstable in how we’re accommodating our friends from Ukraine, that situation will become more unstable into the future”. He referenced a recent survey where almost 48 percent of the persons surveyed indicated they would be staying in Ireland.
He admitted to being “concerned” by the unfolding situation. “It will come to a head in the coming months as to how they will be accommodated,” Dowling predicted.
