Waterford Council are preparing to move some Ukrainian refugees out of temporary accommodation in large-scale centres across the county.
That's according to the local authority's Director of Housing, Mr. Ivan Grimes.
Refugees have been temporarily accomodated in sports halls in both Dungarvan and Carrickpheirish among other areas in recent week while the Council and the Irish Red Cross have worked together to assess offers of vacant property.
Speaking to WLR News, Mr. Grimes says a successful advertising campaign with the local radio station has seen more people come forward and pledge facilities to try and alleviate the crisis.
"It's been a challenge for local authorities across the country - but we are making progress in terms of the pledged accommodation. They have been coming in courtesy of the calls issued on WLR for property owners to bring their vacant properties to our attention. I think we are having some success with that. We would just ask for patience from those who have pledged properties. If they haven't been contacted yet, we will be doing that in the next week or so."
Mr. Grimes says that while the unprecedented humanitarian crisis has proved a challenge, it is fantastic that the local authority are now in a position to move some refugees out of the four centres in County Waterford.
"We have already begun moving some refugees out of the four centres that have been stood up over the past few weeks. They're moving into some of the pledged properties - while there's a former retreat at Gracedieu Manor which was opened earlier this week. We've moved most of the families from the centres that we've had in the city and Dungarvan into those longer-term properties."
The Council Housing Director recognised that while the refugee centres are not an ideal scenario - there has been some progress in finding more permanent solutions down the line.
"In each of the centres, what we're trying to do is provide a degree of comfort to families - and some degree of privacy. There's capacity in the four centres that we have for up to 226 people. They were full at one stage. We've moved over 100 into the longer-term facilities. We've actually notified the Department of Children that from this evening - we have 121 beds available in those centres. There has been very positive feedback - OK, it's not ideal and we recognise that - but from what we are being told, the overall refugee experience has been very positive."
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