Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My first point relates to the actions that are being taken under Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's multi-stranded action plan to deal with the housing and homelessness issue, with which the Deputy is very familiar. We are creating the right conditions and the environment to increase housing supply, especially in our cities and large towns, and we are encouraging competition among developers. We are making the land available and there is fast-tracking of planning. All those issues will ensure more housing supply will come on stream. We are ring-fencing €5.3 billion in the budget to 2021 to deliver 47,000 additional social houses. All that will help the very families about whom the Deputy is speaking.

The Government agrees that commercial hotels, in the first instance, are not appropriate places for families to live. Of course they are not. Family hubs will provide more appropriate and suitable accommodation for families than hotels. Family hubs are an important first response for families who become homeless and have no alternative to commercial hotels. However, to be clear, we do not believe, and I know the Deputy does not either, that family hubs are a long-term housing solution. There is no question of that. Those families will move into houses and apartments that will be provided under the social housing supports as supply becomes available.

I am familiar with the two reports that were published yesterday and to which the Deputy referred. They make some interesting points about ensuring these family hubs do not become normalised, are seen as short-term solutions and in no way become a longer-term solution for families, and that they continue to be used and seen as short-term accommodation. The key point is to provide more housing for the families using them. The multi-action plan will ensure that. The Minister will examine the recommendations to see if some of them need to be in place, including the legislative recommendations in terms of placing an obligation on local authorities to ensure families do not end up staying on a longer-term basis in family hubs.

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