Dessie Ellis TD, Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson, has hit out at the Irish Government after it was revealed the Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) had received a surge of more than 80% in calls to its helpline regarding housing issues last year.

The figures have been published in the organisation's 2014 annual report, which is released today (6 July). Last year, more than 28,000 people received legal help from FLAC. The main queries involved housing, family law and employment issues.

It added that while people contacting its information line for help increased by just over 10% from the previous year, there was a significant increase in calls received regarding housing problems. It is now the second largest area of inquiry on its phone line, alongside family law, the organisation said, as well as credit and debt law.

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Mr Ellis has said the 82% increase in housing queries to FLAC "underlines the failure of the government to tackle the housing crisis or even the distress caused by their inaction."

He continued: "For four years, the government has failed to tackle the shortage in affordable private rental properties and social housing. They have pursued policies which have actually increase hardship for renters and even pushed people into homelessness.

"We have over 1,000 children in emergency accommodation today because of the government's cuts to rent supplement and other vital social welfare payments coupled with a failure to tackle exorbitant rent rates.

"The government has also failed to bring in necessary reforms to provide tenants with the support they need when at risk of losing their home. The Threshold-run support for tenants at risk has helped, but the approach by the government has been too disjointed and many tenants simply do not know their rights or how to find out about their options.

"There is not even any legal requirement for landlords to notify local authorities of impending evictions and the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) has had to cut spending as they receive no government funding at all."

Mr Ellis called for a "strengthened PRTB", with "annual funding that manages a deposit retention scheme and rent tribunals to bring rent levels under control."

He said this needs to happen "in conjunction with the building, refurbishing and purchase of thousands of social housing units" in order to end the crisis.

(JP)