Almost 1,500 children are living in emergency accommodation due to the housing crisis, Sinn Féin TD Sandra McLellan has said.

Deputy McLellan said the situation was due to parents "being forced into an impossible position" by the government's approach to solving the crisis.

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She said: "The government's dedication to allowing the market to regulate itself has failed and it is our children who are suffering the brunt of their failure.

"While emergency accommodation, which we are rapidly running out of the ability to provide, is preferable to the dreadful stories of families living in cars and in parks, it is not a fait accompli to simply take a family off the streets; it is merely the first step."

(LM/MH)