There have been calls for a long term and cross-Government effort to deal with the continued arrival of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland.
It follows the publication of an internal government document in The Irish Times which described the current model as "unsustainable".
The briefing document prepared for the new Minister of State for Integration Joe O'Brien in December, and released under the Freedom of Information Act, predicts a possible shortfall of more than 14,000 places come March.
The models are based on estimated projections that on average 166 Ukrainians and 50 international protection applicants will continue to arrive in Ireland each day in that time.
They also presume that 85% of newly arrived Ukrainian refugees will need State provided accommodation.
In the document, officials forecast a potential shortfall of 8,024 places needed to accommodate Ukrainian refugees by March and a further shortfall of 6,155 in places required to house international protection applicants in the same period.
However it could in fact be worse than this.
The document notes that the projections are based on the assumption that the department can "increase" accommodation capacity "by 10% to the end of March", all the while acknowledging that "risk exists that coming into the tourist season it may be challenging to maintain capacity".
Last year more than 70,000 Ukrainians fleeing war and over 13,600 international protection applicants arrived in ireland seeking refuge.
Providing accommodation to those who need it is currently the responsibility of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
As of 2 January this year, department figures show showed that 51,955 of the more than 70,000 Ukrainian refugees here needed accommodation, with 46,040 in serviced accommodation such as hotels and guest-houses, 1,636 in emergency accommodation and just over 6,165 in pledged accommodation.
The briefing document said that "with daily arrivals over 130 continuing" it was "extremely challenging" securing accommodation and it projected "shortfalls in the immediate short-term".
The "present provision model" was also described as "unsustainable" because "oversight of accommodation at this scale and pace entails many challenges".
The briefing document stated that "without significant acceleration in cross-governmental efforts ... it is inevitable that there will be shortages of available accommodation".
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Last year the department declared there was not enough accommodation to meet the demands of all new arrivals on three separate occasions.
In July it resulted in the temporary accommodation of new arrivals at the Old Terminal Building at Dublin Airport.
In September it resulted in a number of international protection applicants rough sleeping for a number of nights.
While in October a number of both Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants were left without State provided accommodation for a number of nights.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the projected accommodation shortfall figures contained in the briefing document released to The Irish Times were estimates "based on certain assumptions ... and nobody can know that for sure".
Mr Varadkar said he was very proud of what Ireland had achieved to date in supporting refugees, but that it was important to plan ahead.
"We are going to continue to work across Government and across sectors that we provide shelter to anyone who needs it and where we can provide access to education, employment and other services," Mr Varadkar said.
Sinn Féin's spokesperson for Children and Youth Affairs, Kathleen Funchion, described the current Government approach as "really unfair on those working in the Department of Children" who she said were "trying to cope with all of this".
Ms Funchion called on the Department of Housing to play "a much, much bigger role."
Mr O'Brien is also a Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and Department of Social Protection, and Ms Funchion said she believed that assigning him the brief of Minister of State for Integration was "trying to paper over the fact that there isn't a proper cross departmental response at the moment".
National Co-ordinator of the Ukraine Civil Society Response, Emma Lane-Spollen, said she was not surprised by the information contained in the briefing document published today, but that she was concerned.
She said that the war in Ukraine was no longer a short-term crisis and with the conflict now nearly a year old, "we really need a plan that addresses where the pinch points are, that sees it holistically and that recognises the needs of communities, of Ukrainians and of all refugees".
National Director of Jesuit Refugee Service, Eugene Quinn, said the shortfall in places for Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants was "of huge concern".
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One programme, Mr Quinn said it was good that the projections were in the public domain as it was important to "understand the scale of the need and to try and respond to it accordingly".
"A quick look at the numbers shows that in first quarter we expect about 15,000 people to arrive from Ukraine and almost 5,000 to arrive from other countries fleeing persecution.
"That's 20,000 and if there's a shortfall of 14,000, that's of huge concern," Mr Quinn said.
