Dublin City Council intends to construct up to 400 prefabricated houses on vacant sites in the city to combat the growing issue of family homelessness.

A similar plan to erect 200 such houses was abandoned six months ago after the decision was made to dedicate more resources to the issue of people sleeping rough in the wake of the death of Jonathan Corrie outside of Leinster House in December.

At a meeting on June 3rd, the Dublin Joint Homelessness Consultative Forum agreed to "develop and propose a modular housing typology that can develop and rapidly construct quality housing units to required standards."

These units will comply with building regulations, the "cellular modular housing" is developed off site, and can be rapidly constructed.

Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly claimed in April that Dublin City councillors were not co-operating with his department or council officials' attempts to deal with the issue of family homelessness.

A plan to refurbish 64 vacant flats in O’Devaney Gardens on the western edge of Dublin's north city centre was rejected by councillors during that month.

In April Irish Times reported that 1,000 homeless children and their families were in emergency accommodation in Dublin - Minister Kelly said at the time that the current situation cannot continue:

"Simple fact of the matter is we are spending millions on hotels, it’s not a sustainable solution."

He was critical of the Council's decision regarding O’Devaney Gardens and the overall process of dealing his this issue, saying:

“The councillors decided in their wisdom that wasn’t the right road to take. We are under very big time pressure and we have to find alternatives.... But I do need co-operation. I need co-operation from the local authorities in particular."

The minister continued: "Certainly that co-operation needs to reach a level that hasn’t been reached yet."