National housing charity Threshold has issued a call for greater protections for tenants and also argued that rent supplement needs to be increased.

It is one of the organisations attending a Dublin forum on housing and homelessness today.

Senator Aideen Hayden – the Chair of Threshold – has said that tackling homelessness needs to be a key issue for the next Irish government.

Referring to the Tyrrelstown situation, she said that the "priority has to be not to allow vulture funds to make people homeless to start with".

Some 5,715 men, women and children are currently in emergency housing, an increase of almost 50% on 2015 figures.

Simon Communities Ireland is also in attendance at the forum, hosted by acting Environment Minister Alan Kelly.

Spokesperson Niamh Randall told Newstalk Breakfast this morning: "We need short, medium and long-term measures to have a realistic impact and to increase housing supply, but also to stop people, families and children becoming homeless".