Sinn Féin is calling for the Housing Agency to receive more funding so it can acquire the 1,000 vacant properties offered to the state by the banks.

Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD made the call ahead of the launch of the Simon Community 10-point plan aimed at better utilising vacant homes to tackle the housing crisis.

Deputy Ó Broin said: "While Minister Coveney awaits the publication of his Vacant Homes strategy, he can be more ambitious in the roll out of the Repair and Leasing scheme. At the moment, this scheme will only target 0.4% of the vacant properties out there. This is not enough.

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"The Housing Agency acquisition programme should also be expanded.

"Sinn Féin agrees with the Simon Community proposal that there should be a greater use of CPOs by local authorities and that a publicly accessible vacant housing register should be established.

"A Housing Agency report, presented to the Dáil Housing and Homeless Committee last year, identified a number of measures to tackle the issue of vacant homes. One of these measures was a vacant homes tax. The Simon Community also support the introduction of a vacant property tax for houses that are empty for more than 12 months. This should also be carefully considered.

"Bringing vacant homes back into use will not only reduce housing list figures."

Labour's Housing spokesperson, Jan O'Sullivan TD, said: "There can be real solutions here for those who need a home. But there is no sense of urgency in the Government's response; they committed to carry out an audit of all empty homes when Rebuilding Ireland was launched last July. Yet, as confirmed in a parliamentary reply to me last week, that audit hasn't even started."

(CD/LM)