Labour is calling for urgent measures to be taken to address the ongoing homeless crisis in Ireland.

Senator Kevin Humphreys made the call after figures revealed that over 8,000 people are homeless, inclusive of almost 3,000 children.

He said: "It has been estimated than anywhere between 2,500 and 6,000 apartments and houses in Dublin are now marketed as full time, short term lets through platforms like AirBnB.

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"It is time that this was tackled through planning enforcement to put them back into use for families.

"It's not acceptable that thousands of possible homes in our capital city are used for tourists over families.

"There are also tens of thousands of vacant properties and we still have no concrete measures or strategy from the Government to address this.

"Dozens of proposals have been put forward to bring these empty houses back into use. As an immediate measure, every County and City Council should appoint vacant homes officers to inspect properties and assess why these vacant properties are being left vacant and to proactively work to have them occupied again."

(CD/LM)