Kilkenny County Council Housing Director confirms 200 Ukrainians in city – mostly in temporary accommodation

Providing accommodation for Ukrainian refugees is not at the cost of those on local housing lists.

Keys were handed over by Kilkenny County Council for 280 homes last year but 730 people are currently still in need of a place of their own.

Although it’s down from 1,000, solutions still need to be found.

Concern had been raised that available units would be offered to those arriving from war-torn areas.

But on KCLR Live earlier, Director of Services for Housing Mary Mulholland said that’s not the case:

“In Kilkenny the local authority is providing emergency accommodation at a rest centre, which has been at the scouts den, and that’s very temporary. Also at a refurbished convent. Apart from that the only emergency accommodation that we’ve provided has been very temporary in hotel rooms”

Mary Mulholland also gave an update on how many refugees are in emergency accomodation:

“At the moment there are roughly 200 Ukrainian nationals in accommodation in the city and that’s mostly on a temporary basis”