Ireland's increased its intake of refugees for resettling, but the numbers being taken in are still low.

That's according to the ESRI, which has published a report showing Ireland's ahead of schedule on the figure agreed to under the current EU programme.

This country pledged to taken in 520 people and as of November - 98 per cent have been resettled, and the majority are from Syria.

It comes as children's Minister Katherine Zappone announced that 130 refugees would be arriving in Ireland before Christmas

Researcher Samantha Arnold says our response to the global crisis has been broadly positive: