The current housing shortage, has been described as a crisis by President Michael D Higgins.
President Higgins has said that there is a real and urgent need for more public rental accommodation to meet demand.
Mr Higgins made his comments as he met homeless families at a Focus Ireland centre.
A spokesperson for Focus Ireland told reporters that the number of families left homeless in Dublin has increased considerably within in the last year.
The spokesperson for the charity went on to say that 40 homeless families sought its help last month, double the figure for the same month last year.
The Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland has strongly criticised the Government and the Central Bank, saying that they need to wake up to the fact that closing down on buy-to-let landlords is not a victimless activity.
Director Mike Allen told reporters that there was huge social consequences to this activity and legislation needs to be brought in to protect tenants in these cases.
Mr Allen suggested that the rent supplement should be increased and argued that it was absolutely necessary to start building an adequate supply of social housing.
He went onto state that unless there was at least €500m in the upcoming Budget to start major building of social housing, Ireland would continue to see appalling problems of homelessness.