Holiday home owners have been urged to show “leadership” and give fleeing Ukrainians a place to stay. 

Tom Gilligan, Director of Services at Mayo County Council, says the challenge of finding homes for so many refugees in a country already in the grip of a housing crisis has been “unprecedented” and  extremely difficult. 

“There’s a figure mentioned of up to 200,000 refugees coming into Ireland and we [in Mayo] have a population here of 131,000,” he explained to The Hard Shoulder. 

“If you break that down percentagewise you could anticipate about 4,500 refugees coming into the county.” 

Listen and subscribe to The Hard Shoulder on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Even in normal times the housing crisis is a huge problem for people in the county and many struggle to find a place to rent at an affordable price. 

“We also have problems, like every other county, in relation to the shortage of accommodation,” he continued. 

“So for example on Daft.ie we have just in the region of around 25, 30 properties are available to rent throughout the entire county. 

“And that’s unsustainable. It’s very difficult for us and for people to try and find accommodation.” 

Lviv, Ukraine - March 7, 2022: Ukrainian refugees on Lviv railway station waiting for train to escape to Europe

4,800 holiday homes in Mayo

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien says he expects he will have to use emergency planning powers to ease the crisis.

However, for Mr Gilligan, the solution is much more simple; Mayo is a scenic county with many holiday homes that are empty most of the year and he wants their owners to step up and allow refugees to stay in them temporarily: 

“If you look at the last census in 2016 we had about 4,800 holiday homes here in Mayo,” he said. 

“Now I appreciate that the majority of those could be in areas whereby the supports might not be in place and I think it’s very important that when you house a refugee, that you also ensure that the supports are there - in relation to education, in relation to medical care and other supports as well.

“This is an opportunity for holiday home owners to show leadership, to step up, to provide that accommodation at a time when it is most needed. 

“We have an acute shortage of accommodation in Mayo and throughout the country.”

Main image: Ukrainian families cross through the border to Medyka, Poland on February 24, 2022. Picture by: Sipa USA/Alamy Live News