Up to 8,000 homes could be opened up for Ukrainian war refugees in Fair Deal homes.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien is fast-tracking reform of the scheme that will allow people to keep all the rent they get while a loved one is in a nursing home.
The current rules say that you must pay the Government up to 80% of any rent to pay for nursing home costs.
READ MORE: Ukrainian refugees 'returned' to temporary accommodation by Irish hosts ‘unable to cope’
But this clawback is set to be dropped in reforms to be unveiled by Mr O’Brien next week.
A spokesman for the Government last night said this could free up to 8,000 more homes for Ukrainians, but the Irish Mirror understands that the long-term reforms could see the new rules used to ease the housing crisis too.
It comes as the latest figures presented to Government yesterday show that over 18,600 Ukrainian refugees have now arrived in the country.
The latest estimate is that this number will hit between 24,000 and 32,000 by Easter weekend in just over a week’s time.
Leo Varadkar said last week that we can expect to be providing sanctuary to up to 40,000 by the end of April.
The cost of housing every 10,000 refugees by Government is estimated at €500million a year.
Hotels have rented out 4,000 rooms to the Government with beds for 9,800 available in these.
The old Millstreet Arena in Cork will be ready to house over 400 people by April 18 and the Defence Forces will have tented accommodation at Gormanstown ready for another 320 at around the same time if needed.
The Department of Social Protection has issued 17,567 people with PPS numbers up to April 3.
And the Department of Education said that the most recent figures available, for April 4, show that a total of 2,038 children have enrolled in schools across all 26 counties.
READ MORE: Taoiseach says public spending measures may be impacted by cost of taking in Ukrainian refugees
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