diff --git a/templates/usr/local/bin/R-install-package.j2 b/templates/usr/local/bin/R-install-package.j2
index f47c7bc..0e992c9 100644
--- a/templates/usr/local/bin/R-install-package.j2
+++ b/templates/usr/local/bin/R-install-package.j2
@@ -19,6 +19,15 @@ if (type == 'github') {
 if (!(package %in% installed.packages(lib.loc = lib)[, 'Package'])) {
   if (type == 'cran') {
     repos = ifelse(is.na(argv[4]), '{{ r_packages_repos.rstrip('/') }}', argv[4]);
+
+    # Temporary fix for: https://github.com/r-lib/xml2/issues/231
+    if (package %in% c('devtools', 'xml2')) {
+      if (!('withr' %in% installed.packages(lib.loc = lib)[, 'Package'])) {
+        install.packages(p, lib, repos)
+      }
+      withr::with_makevars(c(CXX = 'g++ -std=c++11'), install.packages('xml2', lib, repos))
+    }
+
     withCallingHandlers({
       install.packages(package, lib, repos);
       cat("changed\n");