Officials from the North Western Health Board and local authorities are now meeting to discuss accommodation for asylum-seekers, but early indications are that there has been a slow response to newspaper advertisements seeking housing in the northwest.
The advertisements were placed in response to the accommodation crisis in Dublin, where 85 per cent of asylum-seekers are now based. A Department of Justice spokesman could not say how many offers had come from the northwest, but said that "in excess of 3,000" places had been offered in total in the State.
It is understood offers made to the Department of Justice over the past 10 days in response to the advertisements were channelled to the Department of the Environment, and are only now being sent back to the local authorities.
When contacted by The Irish Times, only Donegal County Council was able to give exact details of offers made in response to the adverts, based on a letter from the Department of the Environment.
No details of accommodation offers had yet been received by Sligo Corporation or Leitrim County Council, but a spokesman for Donegal County Council confirmed there had been 12 offers of accommodation in the county.
The NWHB's programme manager for community care in Co Donegal, Mr John Hayes, said he had been made aware of only "about six or seven expressions of interest" in the county: "It isn't that there are loads of people queuing up to provide accommodation", he said.
Meetings involving the board and Sligo Corporation and Donegal County Council took place yesterday and again today. Mr Hayes said the board was also going through a process with Donegal County Council to see if any public buildings could be used for housing but on "a first trawl" none had been found.
He said the experience with the Nigerian families who have now been in the Gaeltacht area of Falcarragh, Co Donegal, for a month, had shown that the needs of asylum-seekers other than basic accommodation had also to be addressed.
These two families - two women and eight children - are living together in a private rented house in Falcarragh. When interviewed after their arrival, they reported feeling terrified on arriving in Falcarragh on a dark night. They also had problems getting specific food they needed.
"While we looked after the practical things, there would also need to be an appreciation of where these people are coming from and their experience of life to date. The issue is how does it feel from the asylum-seeker's perspective to arrive in a place which is not in any way multiracial", Mr Hayes said.
All society was challenged to adapt to different cultures and races, Mr Hayes said. In the long term he thought it would be better to have asylum-seekers accommodated in small clusters rather than in single bungalows, where it was difficult to provide welfare services.
A number of local representatives have said they are wary of "an influx" of asylum-seekers. The chairman of Donegal County Council, Mr Peter Kennedy, said: "We know we have to take our share of them, but we can't open the floodgates. They cannot be kept in B&Bs forever, and will end up on the housing list eventually."
He said he would prefer first to provide accommodation to local people who have been living in mobile homes for the past three or four years while waiting for a local authority house.
The chairman of Roscommon County Council, Mr Michael McGreal, said he did not expect large numbers of asylum-seekers to arrive in the county. Because of the history of emigration from the area, he said, people would "want to make a contribution towards accommodating them" although there would be "a certain amount of alarm" if there was a large influx, as in Dublin.
The chairman of Leitrim County Council, Mr Tony Ferguson, said: "If there is an urgent need, I am sure the people of the county would do everything they could to support people in that situation, because people from this county have had to seek solace in other parts of the world".
Both Donegal County Council and Sligo Corporation have begun to compile lists of available emergency accommodation. A Sligo Corporation spokesman said that while they were only "at an information-gathering stage", the Department of the Environment had asked for a prompt response.
Two of the offers were for hostel-type accommodation, while the others were in the private-rented and B&B sector. The Department of Justice spokesman said guidelines issued by the Department of the Environment instructed local authorities to look more favourably on offers from hostels and B&Bs than private rented accommodation.