More than 12,000 pledges of rooms for Ukrainian refugees in Ireland

Around 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have recently arrived in Ireland.

A vigil outside the Ukrainian embassy in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) (PA Wire)

More than 12,000 pledges of accommodation have been made by Irish people to refugees fleeing Ukraine, the Irish Red Cross has said.

It comes days after the Government announced plans to allow Irish people to register available accommodation.

Around 75% of offers made in the last four days are for shared accommodation where people have a room to spare.

Donations from members of the public have reached 14 million euro (£11.7 million).

The Irish Red Cross said it needed further information from 2,234 people who offered accommodation.

Around 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have arrived to Ireland in recent weeks.

Some 2,149 offers have been made in Dublin, 1,327 in Cork, 663 in Galway and 586 in Meath.

A number of people living in Northern Ireland have also offered accommodation in Down, Antrim and Armagh.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said the Government may consider having Irish officials based at Polish airports to facilitate people fleeing the war.

We are ready and waiting and willing to provide whatever help. We will be on hand and available at a moment's notice

Eamon Ryan

It comes after Independent TD Cathal Berry called for a small team of diplomats to be stationed at Rzeszow and Krakow airports to deal with people travelling to Ireland.

“We shouldn’t be sitting passively in Dublin Airport waiting for refugees to arrive, we should be proactively getting information and passing it on,” Mr Berry said.

Mr Ryan said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs is working very closely, particularly with the Polish government, who are co-ordinating the response in this regard.

“We are ready and waiting and willing to provide whatever help. We will be on hand and available at a moment’s notice.

“But it has to be co-ordinated and led by the Polish because they are there at the front line managing, so subject to their requests, the department would make a necessary response.”

(PA Graphics) (PA Graphics)

Mr Berry raised the possibility of transporting people and babies injured in Ukraine after a bomb strike gutted a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

He said there is capacity in Ireland’s neonatal intensive care units.

“There is a national neonatal transport programme available, where the hospitals in Dublin link up with the Air Corps to transfer very, very critically ill children from abroad,” he added.

“Ireland does have the capacity here to add a particular niche value to the evacuation and perhaps the minister might discuss with the Minister for Health, because it would start to make a huge difference to very, very sick, critically ill children and their parents in Ukraine.”

Mr Ryan said he does not believe it would be possible as it is difficult to get citizens out of the besieged city.

He also said Ukrainian teachers who travel to Ireland could be recruited to teach Ukrainian children.

Mr Ryan added: “The Teaching Council is now looking to see how could we employ some of the Ukrainian teachers who are coming in, to see how quickly could we establish classes that will allow them to maintain the Ukrainian curriculum.”

He said the Government will work with the Ukrainian community and ambassador to ensure that Ukrainian children are provided with education.

Mr Ryan also said he expects to see a lot of lone parents travelling to Ireland, adding that they too will be provided with support.