Sinn Fein has hit out at the government's "abysmal failure" to tackle the housing crisis in Ireland.

MEP Liadh Ní Riada was speaking in the wake of two reports this week which revealed that rent prices have leapt yet again while just 9% of available properties nationally fall within Rent Supplement and Housing Assisted Payment (RS/HAP) limits.

She said: "In February a Daft.ie report showed that rent inflation for 2016 was at its highest level in 15 years and we heard grand words from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail about how they were going to solve the problem.

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"Yet here we are six months on from that report and we learn that rent prices nationally have jumped yet again, a staggering 12% on this time last year.

"Even more concerning is the fact that just 9% of available properties now fall within RS/HAP limits, a more than 50% drop in available properties on last year.

"Families were already struggling when Fine Gael and Fianna Fail allowed the last enormous leap in rent costs, where are those families now? How many of them have been made homeless by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail's shameful record of failure, upon failure, upon failure?

"They are either unwilling or unable to solve the housing crisis, either way families are suffering.

"Fine Gael and Fianna Fail clearly need reminding that housing is a right, not a privilege."

(CD)