Up to 500 so called 'posh-prefabs', or modular homes, are to be ordered to ease the homeless and housing crisis.

The Cabinet has signed off on the plan to order the homes which can be built in a matter of weeks.

150 of them are expected to be in place by Christmas.

Environment Minister Alan Kelly is to come back to Cabinet next month with proposed sites which will then be subjected to an expedited planning system.

Currently there are about 600 families in emergency accommodation in the city, with over 1000 children included in that number. Local authorities have already spent €4.5m providing emergency accommodation, mostly in hotels, but a sustainable system is recognised as being needed.