Fr Peter McVerry: Homelessness needs emergency treatment

Campaigners are urging the people of Ireland to put pressure on the Government to address the issue of homelessness.

Recent figures from the Department of Housing show almost 8,000 people are without a home, of which nearly 3,000 are children.

Campaigner Fr Peter McVerry (pictured below) called on people to take action, saying: "The most important thing people can do is write letters to the Taoiseach and Minister for Housing and urge on them the importance of addressing this problem, that the public won’t stand for it and that unless this problem is addressed before the next election, there will be consequences for this Government.

"If we had a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the morning, the Taoiseach would call an emergency, he would have every single department sitting round a table trying to address this problem, and would ensure within weeks that this problem was resolved.

"We need to get every department and every agency sitting round a table and seriously addressing (homelessness)."