FIGURES released last week show that 2,452 Personal Public Services Numbers (PPSN) have been issued to Ukrainians in Clare, but the numbe of arrivals here may actually be much higher.
Orla Ní Éilí of the Clare Immigrant Support Centre said, “We’re a bit confused by the numbers, they’re based on PPS numbers, which people have to have.
“But we can tell you in the hotels there are around 2,500 people at this stage and out in the community there are a lot more. We would say that Clare has had 10% of arrivals from the word go.”
Should that be the case, then there would be approximately 3,500 Ukrainian refugees in the county.
Ms Ní Éilí said that many people are still coming, with around 26 arriving on one day last week alone.
Clare Immigrant Support Centre has never had to deal with a situation like this, with so many people arriving at one time, she said, while noting that the level of co-ordination of supports at a national level has been somewhat disappointing.
