Sinn Féin says a vacant homes tax would help ease the housing crisis.

The party is calling on the Government to do more to penalise property owners who leave buildings empty for long periods of time.

It comes as new research suggests 230,000 houses across the country are empty.

Sinn Féin’s Eoin O’Broin outlines what could be done, “well the two most obvious ones are a vacant site tax, to make it costly for people to sit on vacant properties.

“The second is to use compulsory purchase orders by local authorities to get those units into stock. The third is to provide grants for the refurbishment of homes, again so that they are being brought into stock.”