New findings from Social Justice Ireland have sparked a call for greater government work to secure affordable housing across Ireland.

Labour representative Rebecca Moynihan spoke out following the report, calling for an urgent review of HAP limits to better represent the reality of the housing market.

Senator Moynihan said: "The fact that we continue to rely on the private market for social housing is also having huge consequences for people and the government continues to ignore this ticking time bomb. The HAP limits have not been revised since 2016 despite the fact that rents have increased exponentially since then. We know that people are topping up with rates they can’t afford. There is also a huge lack of available properties under the HAP limits throughout the country.

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"In November, we saw that the HAP limits are having a huge impact on single people in particular. The Simon Communities Locked Out report showed that there was just one property available to rent for a single person within HAP limits. We in the Labour Party have continually called on government to wake up to this issue and to stop ignoring the needs of the some 400,000 single people in Ireland when it comes to housing.

"The housing system is not sustainable. Government knows this and multiple reports have confirmed the same. Ireland's two-tier society is driving people into homelessness, it's eroding people's morale and it has created a situation where many people are working to barely get by.

"In a modern society, people should at the very least expect secure and affordable housing. An ambitious public housing programme needs to be at the core of this with sustainable and realistic social housing."