Focus Ireland has said emergency accommodation used for homeless families is scarce as the tourism sector continues to thrive.

Just 518 of the estimated 5,000 units identified by Nama as being suitable for social housing have been handed over to local authorities, despite a reported 90,000 applicants on council waiting lists.

A Fine Gael TD says “a gross injustice has been perpetuated by successive governments” on motorists in Cork who are subsidising road repairs in other counties while they watch their own crumble.

IF Irish Water is to be more than a balance sheet exercise to lower the national debt, the organisation needs to be freed of the legacy inefficiencies inherited from local authorities.