Tipperary councillors heard details of the efforts to accommodate refugees from Ukraine in the county at today’s meeting of the full plenary council.
Karl Cashen, the responsible official, detailed how the government expects Ireland to have 40,000 refugees by the end of April and 75,000 by the end of May.
The local authority have made arrangements to use Moycarkey Community Centre in Littleton and the Pat O’Callaghan Centre in Clonmel as Rest Hubs for the short term accommodation of refugees.
Thurles Lions Housing Trust will oversee the operation in Littleton and the council are seeking a similar community group to manage the Rest Centre in Clonmel.
For now no public donations are sought until the Housing Trust identifies specific items that may be required.
The refugees will only stay in these locations for 3 to 4 nights before moving to semi-permanent accommodation and do not need to be encumbered with items.
The council has secured beds, food, cleaning, food, security and translation services for the two Rest Centres.
Mr Cashen said that many more buildings will be needed but that as the lead agency on the matter was the Department of Children and International Protective Advisory Service the council would work to deliver requests for accommodation as made by those agencies.
Tributes were paid to all involved in getting the Littleton facility into operation 10 days ago and it is expected the Clonmel location will be operational in 2 weeks.
