Sinn Féin has said that providing emergency beds for the homeless is only tackling part of the problem.

The party’s housing spokesperson says figures published on the Department of Housing website yesterday showed that almost 7,000 people were recorded as homeless across the State in November.

Eoin O’Broin has accused the Government of releasing the figures over the holiday in the hope that people would not notice – and that the problem goes much further than juggling numbers.

“There is not an adequate supply of social housing,” he said.

“In fact, AIB and TSB have offered a thousand units to Government to purchase, but unfortunately to date the Government has only released funding for 200 of those units.

“So we need more action to stop people becoming homeless, and more action to ensure that once people are in homeless accommodation they get moved into permanent housing as quickly as possible.”