Fianna Fáil has hit out at the Government over its refusal to consider increasing rent allowance for families at risk of losing their homes.

General Election candidate for Cavan-Monaghan Cllr Niamh Smyth the Govt has "completely failed" to take charge of the housing crisis issue.

She said: "The problem spans across a number of sectors – home ownership, rental, social housing and emergency accommodation. The fact of the matter is that there is a serious lack of supply, as a direct result of Fine Gael's lack of investment in the area.

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"Between 2007-2010, Fianna Fáil built 354 social housing units across Cavan and Monaghan. In stark contrast, Fine Gael and Labour all but halted the social housing programme, building a mere 87 units in the two counties between 2011 and the end of 2014. This has led to a surge of people languishing on the social housing list with 1,146 people housing list in Cavan and another 1,311 in Monaghan, according to the most recent figures.

"There is now a dramatic shortage of supply, which in turn is forcing up rents in the private sector. This Government has spent the past year scrambling to come up with a plan, but their rehashed ideas are simply not delivering.

"We have a credible, multi-faceted approach to address this crisis. We will build 45,000 social houses by substantially increasing exchequer funding and ring-fencing it specifically for this use. We will also introduce a help-to-buy scheme for new home owners."

(CD/LM)