Emergency accommodation has been set up at the Dungarvan Sports Centre to house Ukrainian refugees.
Director of Housing with Waterford Council Ivan Grimes says a large group are expected to arrive today from Rosslare Port.
Up until now, the Irish Red Cross were the main group responsible for accomodation, however this week local authorities were tasked with taking on a larger role.
The temporary accomodation was set up in less than two days according to the council's housing director:
"The reality is, the numbers coming are going to significantly escalate.
"We're expecting a group of Ukrainian refugees to arrive in Waterford over the weekend and to that end, we have temporary accommodation set up in Dungarvan Sports Centre and there has been significant work with the community to get that up and running in less than 48 hours."
Continuing, Mr Grimes said that everything was arranged very quickly and exact details about the arrivals are only being learned as they go along:
"At present we don't have any sight as to where they're coming from but we will over the weekend. Our expectation is that the group that will come to Waterford will be coming via Rosslare, via the Port.
"As of now, we don't even know of the numbers or of the details regarding the age profiles of the people who will be here.
"But we have contingencies to deal with the likes of small children; we will have to have cots and I think we have commitments from the community in Dungarvan to provide those."
A meeting of the recently-formed West Waterford Refugee Response group took place on Thursday night.
They have now secured a drop-off centre where people can donate items for the people arriving. They say it has been kindly offered by Legacy Cider, at Unit 2 Dungarvan Business Park.
Garvey's SuperValu are also facilitating a drop-off point for toothbrushes, body wash, shampoo, razors, toothpaste, nappies, etc.
Shoppers will be able to buy any of these items in the shop and deposit them in a box that will be there.
Other items being sought by the group include sleeping bags, buggies, and pyjamas.
Waterford Council are calling on the public to get in touch with them if they can provide accommodation or if they want to get involved in a local response group.
Director of Housing, Ivan Grimes, says the council are prepared now to play a larger part in co-ordinating efforts regarding the Ukrainian refugees:
"Up until now it had been the Red Cross and the Department of Children who were arranging accommodation and they had been doing that primarily in hotels.
"Groups were being brought by bus to Waterford.
"This week, the Department asked each of the local authorities to help because the numbers had just become too large.
"We'll find out this weekend exactly how that operates. The reality is the numbers are going to increase and we're going to need accommodation.
"That's why the request for information from the public is extremely critical for us."
