Ukrainian refugees will be housed in mass accommodation centres from this week.

Cabinet ministers were last night told there will likely be a shortage of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees here by the end of the month.

The Millstreet Arena in County Cork took in the first of 320 expected arrivals this evening, with mass centres in Citywest and Gormanstown also ready to take people in.

The 70 people who have already arrived at Millstreet will share living and eating facilities but will be provided with private sleeping spaces for families.

As of Tuesday, just short of 25,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war had arrived in Ireland – with just over 16,000 seeking accommodation from the State.

The total is expected to rise to between 29,000 and 33,000 by the end of May.

• 5% are women and children
• 51% of Ukrainian are adult women
• 36% are children
• 13% are adult males
• 5% of the adults are aged 66 or over
• 12% of the children are infants/preschool
• 57% of the children are primary school age
• 31% of the children are secondary school age

Meanwhile, the Irish Red Cross (IRC) has approved 2,200 vacant properties for use by Ukrainian refugees.

Ministers were told that more than 700 of the approved properties have been sent to local authorities to allocate to Ukrainian families.

More than 100 other properties are being allocated by other partners including the Peter McVerry Trust.

Cabinet was told that around 200 people will have been moved into the properties by the end of the week.

IRC Secretary-General Liam O'Dwyer told Newstalk many of the pledged vacant homes are ready-to-go.

“There are about 2,200 and we have moved them on to the Department and they are now looking to work with local authorities and with the IOM and with Peter McVerry trust to place refugees into those properties.

“We are also doing some placements ourselves.”

The Irish Red Cross is continuing to call people who made pledges through the portal – with focus now turning to those who offered rooms in shared accommodation.

Mr O’Dwyer said more than one-third of people who pledged accommodation are now uncontactable.

“The uncontactable rate is around 38%,” he said.

“That is the experience too from the past, when we had similar campaigns with refugees who came from Syria.

“The uncontactable people, we will keep contacting them and sending emails and that just to ensure that people who may have missed our telephone call of email have an opportunity to come back again.”

The Department of Education has said that a total 3,190 Ukrainian children have been enrolled in Irish schools since the war began – 2,096 primary and 1,094 secondary.

A total of 903 schools now have students from Ukraine enrolled – 601 primary and 302 secondary.

Main image is a split-screen of the Defence Forces military base at Gormanston and people hugging at a train station in Ukraine.