Further talks are due today to finalise a deal which will pave the way for a Fine Gael-led minority Government.

The issue of housing is to be discussed by negotiating teams from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil when they meet later, with the next Government being encouraged to put all available resources into housing.

Developer Noel Smyth said funding for the sector needed to be prioritised. He said the impact of the housing crisis on individuals had been forgotten about in recent years.

He said: “If you put young families into crisis, you put them into the health service (with) physical or mental health issues.

“You put them into a situation where they can’t go to work, or if they go to work they’ve nowhere to come home to.

“Having a home is a foundation and a human right.”

Meanwhile Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald described the decision to suspend water charges for at least nine months if a government is formed as a fudge by the two big parties.

She said people who paid their water bills should now get their money back:

“The fair thing to do would be to reimburse those that have paid,” she said.

Meanwhile representatives of group water schemes say the suspension of charges is regrettable.

More than 100,000 people across the country are part of the organisations and will continue to pay for them to operate.

National policy adviser with the national federation of group water schemes Sean Clerkin said: “It’s regrettable that we’ve gone back downhill again.

“There was a growing acceptance that something as valuable as water needed to be paid for, or at least that people needed to contribute something towards it.

“I’d be hopeful these issues can be looked at in the calmer light of day.”