The offer of a €500 estate agent finder's fee if homes are found for homeless families has been described as a "sign of increasing desperation".

Criticising the move, Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, said: "The pressure the DRHE is under to source homes is due to central government failure to tackle the homeless crisis.

"Reports today that the DRHE is offering €500 payments to estate agents if they prioritise the allocation of homes to families on homeless HAP payments is a sign of the increasingly levels of pressure they are under to get families out of emergency accommodation.

"Sinn Féin will not oppose any measure that provides housing for homeless families. However, this move is a sign of the level of desperation that the Homeless Executive have reached in trying to assist people exiting homeless. That desperation is a direct consequence of the failure of Government to take the necessary action to reduce the flow of families into homelessness and get families out of emergency accommodation into real social homes.

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"While this finder's fee may benefit some families with access to the increased homeless HAP rate of payment, it will have an adverse impact on families on the normal HAP rate looking for somewhere to live and those low income families who do not qualify for social housing and are trying to get into the rental market.

"What the Government should be doing is implementing the kind of measures called for by opposition TDs and NGOs to prevent homelessness such as preventing evictions into homelessness, buying more vacant homes to get people out of emergency accommodation, and implementing a rent freeze.

"These three measures would go some way towards alleviating the family homelessness and would not pit struggling renters against each other as well-intentioned cash incentives distort the rental market further."

(MH)