Donegal County Council has received almost 120 offers of unoccupied properties for Ukrainian refugees over the past two months.
A council spokesperson told Donegal Daily owners have put forward 118 vacant buildings since the ‘Offer-a-Home Scheme’ was introduced in December in a drive to find more accommodation for those displaced by war.
Property owners who participate in the scheme receive a State payment of €800 per month tax-free.
The Department of Housing said, nationally, there have been 1,158 offers of unoccupied properties over the past eight weeks.
Local authorities have made contact with 1,077 of the offers and, of those, 179 properties have been allocated providing a home for 618 Ukrainians.
Under the initiative, local authorities take offers of properties on the offerahome.ie website and liaise with owners to assess suitability.
A spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability and Integration said Ireland is now accommodating over 75,410 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection applicants.
She said this includes 55,535 Ukrainian people who have sought accommodation from the State and almost 20,000 International Protection applicants currently in International Protection Accommodation Services accommodation.
This compares with 8,000 at the beginning of 2022.
The spokesperson said the Government agreed that a move from an emergency response to a more mainstreamed approach is appropriate, including a reduced reliance on serviced accommodation.
This includes an increased focus on rapid build housing and a new call for vacant homes, led by local authorities.
Building modular homes is also among the government initiatives to provide accommodation for refugees.
However, as yet, none of these are planned for Donegal.
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