Fianna Fáil's Housing spokesperson, Darragh O’Brien TD, has called for an independent assessment of the homeless figures.

New figures for April, published yesterday, 31 May, shows that almost 10,000 people are homeless, including a record high of 3,689 children. A total of 297 people were also removed from the list.

Deputy O'Brien said: "I believe that there are some very serious questions regarding the Department of Housing's use of statistics. The figures they have published appear to be designed to ease the pressure on the Government by trying to avoid acknowledging any breach of a 10,000 homeless mark.

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"Furthermore, they insinuate that local authorities built a great deal more homes than was factually the case."

He added: "An independent assessment of these numbers is the only means of determining their true accuracy. The Government should consider utilising the CSO or including statistical verification as part of a new Housing Delivery Agency to confirm the precision of published figures.

"So long as this current situation continues to worsen, anecdotally or otherwise, people will have serious doubts about the validity of the figures. It's time to quit the spin and get building."

(CM/LM)