Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with any of the Senator's remarks. Hubs are not an interim solution, they are the first response. They are meant to replace hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. We do not see them as the second stage. We want people to go directly into hubs and that is why we currently have nine. We will have 15 hubs when the funding for the current programme is completed. It is a first response. It is a very good response. I know some people who may not be as familiar with what is happening in the hubs and how they work have been too quick to criticise them. That has undermined them unfortunately. Great care and support is given to the families that go into the hubs. We want them to be there for as short a time as possible but we must recognise that different families hove different needs and we must have tailored solutions for each family and to be sensitive to that. It is not like moving stock, we cannot say that boxes come in and we will move them in three weeks time to the next location. We have to work with these families and be sensitive to their needs. If we look at a facility like Mater Dei, and I spoke about this yesterday evening or last week in the Dáil, which can accommodate 27 families at present and which will be able to accommodate 50 families when all the work is completed. Since that was opened in June 2017, half of the families have moved on into social housing or into HAP supported homes. They have moved on very successfully, which is great. For those who have not moved on yet, more solutions will come and they will tell me. There are a few families who will be there for longer than we would like them to be there because they will find it difficult to move on to a facility or a private home where they do not have the support which they have now, but which they had not had before and which are helpful to them. I think that is something which we have to be conscious of. We will do everything that we can to make sure that families in hubs are getting every care while they are there and we will do everything we can to try to move them into sustainable permanent secure accommodating as quickly as possible. In a number of cases, however, those families unfortunately will be there for a very long time. Thankfully they will be in hubs rather than hotels. Some families have been in hotels for far too long and the damage that has inflected on them is really unacceptable. If we can make sure that those families get out of the hotel rooms, that is very important. For families, who have to say in hubs longer than we would like, they will continue to get every support possible.