A Roscommon man who heads up a migrant rights organisation in Ireland says the government needs to be proactive about resolving the refugee accommodation crisis rather than reactive.
John Lannon who's originally from Rooskey is CEO of Doras, an organisation set up in 2000 in response to the establishment of Direct Provision centres here.
He says the statement from government that there is no state accommodation left for new refugees is deeply concerning.
The Doras CEO says the Taoiseach needs to step in and appoint someone who has overall responsibility, and set up an agency to respond to the needs of new refugees arriving here.
The Rooskey native says other ways of solving the accommodation issue also have to be revisited and focused on.
'We have a lot of vacant buildings around the country that the Department of Housing needs to look into using.
Modular homes have been proposed, and the set up of little villages of homes is one of the solutions that can be used .
Incentivising people to make their holiday homes available after the summer is another one, and finding ways to unleash or unlock the interest across communities in Ireland to allow people to host people who are arriving in their own homes or in their communities.'
