Ireland has welcomed some 45,000 thousand Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of Russia's invasion in February.

This comes as refugees continue to be moved out of college accommodation this week, with 2,000 already gone to allow this year's students to live there.

Some 3,700 Ukrainian refugees are living in pledged accommodation, which is 10% of all Ukrainian's housed by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth.

Minister Roderic O'Gorman says the department is housing nearly 50,000 people in total now.

"My department are providing accommodation for 35,000 [refugees]."

"At the same time, we're also providing accommodation for those coming to Ireland seeking international protection", he said.

"We're accommodating about 15,000 people in the international protection process."

The government has come under increasing pressure as around 3,500 refugees housed in student accommodation are having to move elsewhere in time for the new academic year.

The Citywest conference centre and the Aviva stadium are just some of the venues that have been used to house refugees in recent months.

Hoteliers

Last month, the government announced it would pay hoteliers €135 per night for single adult refugees to stay in their hotels.

Now that foreign tourism has returned largely to normality, availability of accommodation for refugees has been impacted.

On The Pat Kenny Show Tim Fenn, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said that some hotels didn’t realise how quickly the tourism industry would recover when they committed to housing refugees earlier this year.

Many are now choosing not to renew their contracts with the government.

GAA clubs

The Department of Sport has asked sporting bodies to house Ukrainian refugees on a temporary basis.

The GAA has passed on the message to club and county boards, hoping someone will have the facilities to accommodate some refugees come September.

Cork County Council has made efforts to help house Ukrainians by surveying property on Cape Clear Island, hoping it can be used to ease the strain on college accommodation.

County Mayor Danny Collins told Newstalk: "A lot of these students are starting their first year in college and I know situations where they're finding it very hard to find accommodation."

"The government has been working very slowly on these issues and I think they'll have to just speed up now because we're only three to five weeks away from colleges reopening again", he said.

"This is one way out of the situation at least."

Main image shows the Gormanston Army Camp. Image: Department of Taoiseach.