Govt unveils €312m social housing plan

The Government has unveiled a new €312m social housing plan.

It is the latest phase in the coalition's housing strategy, which is worth a total of €4bn.

Every local authority around the country is expected to receive some of the funding, and a target has been set for 1,700 new homes to be completed by 2017.

However, after recent figures showed 1,000 children were in emergency accommodation in Dublin in one week in March, Housing Minister Paudie Coffey says he knows a lot more needs to be done.

He said: "It is only one strand of the response to the social housing strategy and that's why there will be firther announcements following shortly.

"Already we have turned around 2,000 vacant housing units owned by the State, owned by local authorities, in the past year.

"We need to see more of that happen, we expect another 1,000 of the vacant houses to be put back into beneficial use."