Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The intention of the family hub, of which 15 are advancing or have been delivered in Dublin, with a further three in Limerick, Cork and Kildare, is to ensure that families no longer have to spend time in commercial hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation except in extreme or exceptional situations. Staying in a bed and breakfast establishment or a hotel is not appropriate for families. This type of accommodation is much preferable to the situation we have at the moment with people staying in bed and breakfast establishments and hotels. It is not considered to be a long-term housing solution. It is absolutely not the intention. It is only intended to be a short-term solution while people are provided with houses, apartments or proper accommodation under the social housing support system, whether through rent supplement, HAP or social housing.

In terms of the progress being made on the implementation of the Rebuilding Ireland plan, it is important to point out a few things. Planning permission has been granted for 16,375 new homes in the past 12 months, which is an increase of 26%. Commencement notices have been issued for 14,192 new homes nationwide, which is an increase of 38%. When it comes to housing completions as measured by ESB connections, in the 12 months up to the end of March 2015, it reached 15,684 homes across the country, which is 19% on the previous year. We are, without doubt, seeing an acceleration in the provision of housing and house -building. We are way behind where we need to be but we are now moving in the right direction. In terms of social housing there is a pipeline of 600 social housing projects involving the construction of over 10,000 homes at various stages in the process. There are currently 130 schemes under way on sites nationwide building over 2,400 homes. These include large-scale sites brought forward for mixed-tenure housing such as O'Devaney Gardens in Dublin City Council, Kilcarbery in South Dublin County Council and also in Fingal.

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