Mr. John McCarthy:

The main line of funding in the Department's budget in respect of homelessness is subhead A5. In 2017, the outturn was €109 million. Generally, local authorities would match that with a further 10%. In many cases, they actually fund further services beyond that.

In terms of hubs, at this stage there are approximately 26 hubs operational nationally, the bulk of them in Dublin. They provide over 600 units of family accommodation. The Deputy absolutely rightly points to the extent to which homelessness remains a really serious issue for us. One of the main reasons for the hubs is to try to provide a better, but obviously inadequate, short-term support than would be available in hotels. Not only are they better than hotels because of-----