Approximately 240 Irish hotels are now being used to house asylum seekers and refugees – almost 30% of the country’s overall hotel stock.

Around 250 B&B's and Guesthouses are also currently being used to accommodate refugees and people seeking international protection.

Earlier this week, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that tourism in Ireland will be negatively impacted as the war in Ukraine – and the housing of tens of thousands of refugees in hotels.

At the start of the month, 118 hotels were being used. In just three weeks that figure has doubled.

Despite the number of hotels, guesthouses and B&B's now being used for accommodation purposes, the government says it is still proactively looking to use more on a temporary basis.

Asylum seeker surge

Dublin’s CityWest hotel is full to capacity and Ukrainians arriving in Ireland have recently been asked to sleep at Dublin Airport, such is the severity of the housing crisis.

In July, the Government took out a two-year lease on Dublin’s CityWest hotel. However, all 764 rooms are currently in use and the number of refugees continues to rise.

There are currently more than 50,000 Ukrainians refugees in Ireland, while there has also been a surge in asylum seekers from other countries fleeing to Irish shores since the end of international travel restrictions.

Earlier this month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the numbers arriving in Ireland are “far higher” than what was expected, noting that things are “very, very challenging”.

He also said that the conditions that refugees are fleeing reflect a “very disturbed world”.