Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Ending homelessness is the social imperative of our time and it can only be resolved when supply is adequate to need. Until we reach that point, and we must provide every resource we possibly can to achieving that objective, family hubs will be there.

I appreciate the amount of money the Government has spent on them. They are, as I have acknowledged, an improvement on bed and breakfast accommodation, but the fundamental question I asked in response to the Ombudsman for Children's report is, why are we, as a State, imposing standards of conduct on residents in family hubs, and what are those standards? Are they allowed guests? Are they allowed to have their children move around freely in them? Is there adequate freedom of action for people in those hubs, and if not, why not, or is the report inaccurate when it reports such matters? Surely the objective should simply be that the standards would be the same as for tenants in any local authority house.

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