Roderic O’Gorman has revealed the Government has already placed 4,500 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war zone in hotels and B&Bs here.
The Minister for Integration said 9,000 Ukrainians have already arrived in Ireland, with half of these staying with friends or family.
Mr O’Gorman said the Government is ultimately preparing for “tens of thousands of refugees” being accommodated here.
The Government has moved quickly to put up the thousands of refugees, with hotels and guesthouses the first port of call.
Contracts of between six and 12 months are being agreed.
However, the humanitarian crisis at Ukraine borders is worsening every day and it is expected that soon four million people will have escaped the Russian invasion.
That means that Ireland, as one of 27 members of the EU, will likely see multiples of the 4,500 refugees that will need to be provided with sanctuary.
Larger centres will be needed and Mr O’Gorman said that venues like the National Show Centre in Dublin and the Millstreet Arena in Cork could be used.
Already, the generosity of the Irish people has seen 20,000 offers of accommodation from the general public through the Irish Red Cross.
Mr O’Gorman said that these private offers are now being assessed and that vacant properties will be the first to be acquired.
After that he said they move on to placing Ukrainians with Irish families.
This phase has begun on a limited level.
Mr O’Gorman told RTE’s This Week programme: “I think when you look at the ongoing magnitude of the crisis in Ukraine, Ireland and all European countries are going to expect to receive probably tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in the weeks ahead.
“And it’s certainly those numbers that we are preparing for.
“We are continuing to look to book hotel accommodation to deal with short term accommodation needs and as of this weekend we’ve begun to draw down accommodation from the pledges provided by the Irish people.
“Over 20,000 offers have come in from the Irish people across the country, huge show of generosity and my department is beginning to look to start to activate some of those accommodation options now, starting initially with options of vacant housing.”
Mr O’Gorman added that the Government has successfully managed to place all refugees so far and that he is confident they can continue to do so.
He said: “Look, we’ve just got through St Patrick’s Day and obviously a lot of people had booked accommodation for the long weekend and it was tight at times over the past number of days, but we got through that.
“We know next week and the following week it’s going to be easier to secure accommodation.
“But we’ve been very clear to people that this is part of the short term solution.”
