Dubliners are being urged to donate money instead of goods such as food and medicine to help the victims of the war in Ukraine.
In a statement, the Irish Red Cross said that over 60,000 people have donated to its Ukraine fund which has received €1.3 million in just a few days.
It comes as hundreds of businesses in and around Dublin have donated goods to the people in Ukraine such as food, toys, medicine, and more.
In a statement the Irish Red Cross said that it was "heartened" by the generosity of the Irish people to help those in Ukraine.
The organisation said: "The Irish Red Cross would like to thank the Irish people for their generosity but with airports closed and transportation systems under pressure, sending physical goods is likely to add more stress to the situation on the ground. In circumstances of disaster, the Red Cross always advises against sending goods to affected areas as it is very difficult to get these goods into a country in crisis and to distribute them to the right people.
"Experience from other crises shows that many of these items will end of up in landfill and will not help the people you wish to support."
Speaking on Newstalk this morning, Liam O’Dwyer Secretary-General of The Irish Red Cross said that the Ukraine Red Cross are currently on the ground.
He said: "A lot of work is going into the Polish and Slovakian Red Cross and what's happening is at least 600,0000 people at least 5000,000 have gone into these countries and they are meeting the Red Cross teams on the ground.
"We do need the cash because I think the Red Cross and UN agencies know exactly what they need in an emergency like this, they know the quality of goods need to be able to hand out quickly and easily.
"What they do is purchase those and they keep a stock of them which is nearly gone already because I know in Ukraine that they have already handed out 30,000 of these packs in the first few days, and so they then need to re-stock, and that's where they need the resources from here and from other countries to enable them to buy the stock."
Mr O'Dwyer said the most effective way to help is to donate to RedCross.ie or the Revolut app and that they are "very appreciative" of all the support.
He added: "But that's where people want to get together and organise a fundraising event is a great thing I think, people want to be involved they don't want to donate privately they want to actually be part of something and being part of a fundraising event and then moving the monies to the likes of an organisation like us the Red Cross would be greatly appreciated."
Anyone wishing to donate can do so here
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