Plans were announced in June 2015 for “rapid build” prefabricated houses on vacant council land for families living in emergency accommodation.

In October the council issued details of five sites around the city where 153 factory-built homes would be installed. The first 22 were to be delivered by Christmas using “ultra-accelerated procurement” at a site on Balbutcher Lane inBallymun.

The remaining 131 houses at sites in Finglas, Darndale, Cherry Orchardand Drimnagh were to be in place by June. Tenders worth €20 million were issued in December 2015 for the 131 houses on the other sites.

Dublin City Council had taken the decision to cancel the tender, citing “an insufficient number of applicants who confirmed they would be able to meet the deadline in order to conduct a competition” as the main reason. It now considers the deadline is no longer achievable.

The cancellation notice said the council intends to conduct a “fresh competition”. However, no details have been issued. Last December, days before they were due for completion, the council said the Ballymun homes would not be ready by Christmas, blaming protests at the site the previous month and bad weather.

These factory-built modular housing units could provide temporary accommodation to the hundreds of homeless families in the city.