The Government has dropped a plan to phase out State-funded commercial accommodation for Ukrainian people by March 2026.
The proposal, which has not previously been reported, was considered and backed by officials in December 2025 amid concerns about the cost and availability of accommodation.
But the Department of Justice has confirmed there is “no plan to phase out all State-funded accommodation contracts by March 2026”.
“The department continues to work to consolidate and rationalise its accommodation portfolio to ensure greater compliance with standards and better value for money,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.
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“The department is renewing contracts for existing accommodation that meet the department’s accommodation portfolio requirements.”
During the last Government responsibility for integration and immigration rested with what is now known as the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.
At a meeting on December 2nd last year senior officials at that department considered a paper setting out what the State had spent on accommodation for Ukrainian people who had come to Ireland seeking temporary protection from the Russian invasion.
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The meeting of the management board at the department heard how a policy introduced in March 2024, which capped at 90 days the time Ukrainian people could stay in State funded accommodation, had reduced costs. The meeting also heard about how the Government was trying to renegotiate or renew contracts with accommodation providers, and how it was trying to cut the number of vacant rooms in contracted accommodation. The same meeting also heard a “key policy proposal” that officials were told would now be advanced.
This included extending the Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP), a tax-free payment to those who host Ukrainian people in their own accommodation on behalf of the State, beyond March 2025. This proposal was eventually adopted, and earlier this year it was agreed to extend the scheme to March 2026.
The proposals raised at the December 2nd meeting also included removing the entitlement of Ukrainian people who arrived in Ireland before March 2024 to return to State-funded accommodation after leaving it. And “consideration of the phasing out of all State-funded commercial accommodation contracts by March 2026, with exception for the most vulnerable [beneficiaries of temporary protection]”.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the management board “discussed the merits and implementation issues associated with the proposals and expressed support for the basis of these and the policy direction proposed”.
The meeting took place days after the 2024 general election on November 29th, and the management board of the department agreed “to engage with the incoming Minister as a priority with a view to future Government consideration of the policy options involved”.
After the new Government was formed, responsibility for integration policies formally moved from the Department of Children to the Department of Justice on May 1st.
The Department of Children said “any queries in relation to integration should be directed to the Department of Justice”. The Department of Justice confirmed that a policy of ending State-funded accommodation contracts for Ukrainian people is no longer being considered.
It comes as the Government has started to row back on the accommodation offered to Ukrainian people who come to Ireland seeking protection. Since November 10th, people who came to Ireland after March 2024 are now entitled to 30 rather than 90 days in accommodation provided by the State. Due to accommodation shortages, people who have previously held temporary protection status in another EU member state, were also no longer entitled to access State-funded accommodation in Ireland.
