Lord Mayor demands Government tackle Dublin's 'unprecedented' homeless crisis

Dublin's Lord Mayor has called for an immediate meeting with the Environment Minister to discuss the "unprecedented" scale of the homelessness crisis in the city.

Criona Ni Dhalaigh said that she has been in contact with Alan Kelly's office every week since June 29 - and a meeting has finally been confirmed for the start of September.

Almost 2,000 adults were accommodated on a nightly basis in the second quarter of this year - 556 of them families - accompanied by 1,185 children.

The Lord Mayor said she is not satisfied with the Environment Minister's response to date.

"I'm actually disappointed in Minister Kelly, because I've been asking for a meeting with him since the 29th of June, to sit down and discuss with him the homeless crisis in Dublin," she said.

"And I wasn't just looking for the meeting for me, I'd asked him to sit down with … a cross-party committee, so that represents all parties, including his own, to sit down and discuss with us how we can best address this issue."