The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Ukrainian families who need to be moved should be given as much notice as possible.
Speaking at a festive event for Ukrainain refugees in Vicar Street in Dublin, Mr Varadkar said he would speak with Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O'Gorman about the situation in Dundalk in Co Louth, where a group of refugees were informed on Friday that they must move to locations including Limerick and Kerry tomorrow.
"My feeling is if people have to be moved, and sometimes they do, it is important to give them as much notice as possible. Particularly if families and children have to move schools, that can be very traumatic," the Taoiseach said.
"It is not good the families are ever separated or that they have to move from one area to another at short notice. That is true all year round, it is particularly true at Christmas week," Mr Vadardkar added.
The group of Ukrainian refugees living in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Dundalk have been given just over 48 hours' notice that they will be moved to alternative accommodation tomorrow.
RTÉ News has seen a letter advising a resident that they will be moved to accommodation in Limerick.
Those supporting the refugees say some others have been told they are moving to Tralee and Killarney in Co Kerry.
They have called for more time to be given to the residents to allow them to find alternative accommodation options in the area.
RTÉ News understands that most of the Ukrainian refugees at the hotel have been living there since March. There are around 19 children in the group who are attending local schools.
Since the hotel's Ukrainian residents were informed of the move on Friday evening, Emily Woodcock who has been supporting them, said two offers of accommodation had already been made by people in the area willing to host some of those affected.
"The main thing we need is time," Ms Woodcock told RTÉ News.
Ms Woodcock has called for the planned relocation of residents to be delayed so that efforts could continue to find the refugees alternative accommodation locally.
When around 200 Ukrainian refugees were moved from the Ibis hotel in Dublin last month, around 90 were accommodated in pledged accommodation secured by the Irish Red Cross and Helping Irish Hosts.
At the time, Minister O'Gorman said he believed around 50 had been accommodated "locally", adding that that was why "the use of pledged accommodation is so important".
Both the Irish Red Cross and Helping Irish Hosts confirmed to RTÉ News that they were unaware of the proposed move of residents from the Dundalk hotel prior to today.
Irish Red Cross Secretary General Liam O'Dwyer said "if requested" they could begin work on such a process early next week.
A spokesperson from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said that "the Department does not comment on individual cases", but that as "the State is currently in an emergency response to the ongoing crisis... transfers are necessary to ensure that applicants for international protection and all those fleeing here from Ukraine can be accommodated".
The spokesperson said that the Department was "focused on providing immediate, temporary accommodation to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine" and is currently providing accommodation to around 50,080 people who have fled the war there.
Hosted accommodation
Helping Irish Hosts CEO Angie Gough urged anyone who would like to move to hosted accommodation to get in contact as soon as possible.
"We will do our best to accommodate them," Ms Gough added.
On Friday, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth warned that "procurement of additional accommodation will be very challenging for the period up to January 13, 2023".
It said that the processing hub for Ukrainian refugees in Citywest would close from 24-27 December and that any Ukrainians arriving during that time would "be accommodated temporarily at designated local authority sites".
In a letter given to the Ukrainian refugees living in the Crowne Plaza in Dundalk on Friday evening, they were advised that it was "not possible to facilitate requests for accommodation of a certain type or in a specific location except on specific medical or disability grounds as verified by the Health Service Executive".
It added that "due to the acute shortage of accommodation available, should you refuse an offer of re-location to alternative suitable accommodation you will not receive further offers" from the department, but that people were "free to source" their own.
