Mr. John McCarthy:

Yes.

There are 20 hubs with family accommodation for more than 500 families in place. The Department has spent €19 million on the provision of family hub accommodation this year. The family hub programme was introduced primarily to provide better transitional accommodation than resorting to hotels. On the basis of projections by the local authorities for 2018, as part of their homeless budgets, the cost of a family in a family hub is the equivalent of about €36,000 a year. The average cost in 2017 for a family in a hotel was about €67,000. Obviously, there is a capital cost associated with a hub, but the running costs are significantly less and it is a better service.