The homeless crisis needs to be declared a national emergency according to the Peter McVerry trust.

Figures from the Department of the Environment show that a family became homeless every day in February.

Focus Ireland's figures are even worse for March, reporting that 85 families became homeless last month.

Mike Allen from Focus Ireland says that urgent action is needed to build homes:

"We celebrated the creation of the Irish state over the recent period of time, and one thing that the state should to be able to do - that the government ought be able to do - it shouldn't have to rely on the private sector to build the housing. It can employ the workers, it can put the resources in to actually get these houses built. We need a lot of things immediately to deal with the crisis, but it's only going to be solved when we've got some affordable, decent housing."