The Government department responsible for finding accommodation for Ukrainian refugees owes hundreds of hotels, hostels and B&Bs €41m in unpaid bills.
Figures obtained by RTÉ's News At One programme show the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth owes the money to the properties, including 176 individual invoices and an outstanding €2.4m bill to one hotel chain.
Since Russia's war in Ukraine began almost a year ago, 78,000 people have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine and nearby countries seeking shelter.
A key part of the Government's response has been the use of more than 700 hotels, hostels and B&Bs to help house new arrivals.
So far, the Department of Integration has spent €564m on accommodation needs as part of its Ukrainian Accommodation and Related Services plan.
However, new figures obtained by RTÉ's News at One programme show the department has also failed to pay hotels, hostels and B&Bs €41m in fees on time, including individual invoices of €200 to €2.4m.
As part of a series of questions to the department over the past two weeks, RTÉ also asked:
* How many hotels, hostels and B&Bs are waiting for overdue payments out of the more than 700 properties providing the help?
* How long on average have they been waiting?
* How many are owed more than €300,000, more than €200,000 and more than €100,000?
However, the department declined to answer these questions.
The department also said some of the overdue payments figure may be due to hotels, hostels or B&Bs failing to properly fill out or provide the relevant invoice forms.
However, when asked for a breakdown of the €41m figure in terms of overdue payments and overdue payments due to invoice mistakes, the department declined to provide a breakdown.
In a statement, the Department said: "€564m is the total spend to date on Ukraine accommodation and related services. In addition to this, €41m is outstanding for payment.
"It is important to note an invoice is only overdue if it is correct for payment but not paid within the agreed timeframe.
"Some payments to suppliers are held up because they have not provided the documentation we require."
An earlier department statement to RTÉ's News At One programme, from two weeks ago, had declined to outline any figures apart from a €440m overall hotels, hostels and B&Bs spend to date, a figure that differs from the current overall spend of €564m.
'Backlogs'
Speaking on RTE's News At One programme today, the Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman confirmed "there are a number of backlogs at the moment" and that officials are working through "a very large number of invoices".
In recent weeks, a number of hotels have privately raised concerns over delayed payments, with Independent TD for Sligo-Leitrim Marian Harkin telling the Irish Examiner she is aware of one hotel that is owed €400,000 and Fine Gael TD for Mayo Michael Ring said he was aware of another hotel owed €250,000.
The department said since Christmas it has more than doubled the number of people working to address the payment delays, with 20 officials now temporarily employed in the area.
A spokesperson said the department "regrets" any payment delays and that resolving the issue is a "very high priority".
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil this afternoon that the Government is working on an anti-racism strategy, which will be launched quite soon.
He was speaking in response to People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who highlighted an "Ireland for All" anti-racism march which is due to take place on 18 February
The Taoiseach said that nobody should try to politicise the issue of racism.
He added Ireland had "welcomed" 100,000 to Ireland in the past year.
"No country in Western Europe has welcomed as many as we have," he added.
He repeated that "it does mean being firm with minority of people who come here whose story is not true".
Additional reporting David Murphy
