There are now almost 800 families in emergency accommodation in Dublin - an increase of 114% when compared with January 2015, new figures have shown.

According to the figures from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, last month alone, 125 new families presented as homeless in Dublin.

The Dublin Simon Community has expressed its concern about these figures.

"Many of these families are accessing hotel rooms with no facilities to cook or clean and often just a bed to share. This is totally unacceptable and the longer these increases continue the more detrimental the impact will be on their lives in the long term," commented Sam McGuinness of the Dublin Simon Community.

He said that the issues of rent certainty and rent supplement must be a priority for the next government, or else the homeless problem will continue to escalate.

"As rents remain unaffordable and the gap between rent supplement and market rents continues to widen, more and more children, families and individuals will be pushed into homelessness, especially at a time when the number of properties available to rent is at an all-time low," Mr McGuinness insisted.

He added that it is essential that the country ‘moves away from an emergency-led response'.

"We cannot keep offering people short-term solutions that have now become long term. Providing people with the support to stay in their homes, together with ensuring the provision of affordable housing with support to move them out of homelessness, will be the only way we are going to solve this crisis long term."