House prices in Ireland will fall further, a top economist at one of the country's most prominent financial services group has said.

Jim Power of Friends First suggested the Irish housing market is still "fundamentally in deep trouble".

He said: "It will be a long, long time before any recovery as there are imbalances in the market and supply and demand is skewed."

Discussing social housing, Mr Power said at least 200,000 excess houses in the country and some of these will be coming to NAMA.

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"We must look at innovative ways to solve our social housing problems."

Earlier, the Irish Council of Social Housing suggested housing associations around the country could have the capacity to acquire 10,000 units for social housing over the next five years.

ICSH said this could be done through the purchase unsold vacant units using private finance backed by government guarantees; longterm Leasing of unsold vacant units from developers; and/or the purchase/lease unsold affordable housing units from local authorities

Meanwhile, Wexford County Council was the overall winner in the 2009 Community Housing Awards presented by the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) with a project which has helped regenerate the village of Duncormick.

Wexford won the award – presented at the conference in Athlone - for a housing development at Sli Chormic, Duncormick.

Designed by Sean Loughlin, Wexford County Council, the project consists of nine three, two and one bedroom houses.

(PR/BMcC)