Ireland's plans to provide refuge to Ukrainian refugees are gathering momentum as up to 20,000 could be arriving in Ireland as they flee the war in their country.
The Taoiseach said relevant departments and agencies will work together to prepare for the possibility of significant numbers being offered protection in Ireland.
Michael Martin added that arrangement will be put in place to deal with the many offers of help which have already been pledged by the Irish people.
The Fine Gael spokesman on European Affairs Neal Richmond said the government will face new challenges in order to deal with the tens of thousands of refugees arriving here.
"There are existing procedures in terms of the large scale resettlement of refugees, as we've seen with the up to 1,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the last year.
"Beyond that, there are new areas that the government will have to look at, but a lot of those won't kick in to place for a number of months now.
"We see that a million people have moved across Ukraine now, not all of those will come into the EU but they are coming."
