Housing Minister to publish national plan for vacant homes

The housing minister says a new national plan to deal with the country's vacant homes will be published "within days".

Simon Coveney says the strategy will make a "real impact" in the housing crisis.

The comments came after Dáil business was dominated by the housing crisis - after seven families failed to find emergency accommodation on Tuesday night in Dublin, leading four to sleep in public parks.

Cork Simon says there are 295 homeless people in Cork city and county today and although they have increased their emergency shelter it simply cannot cope with demand:

In the Dail, Eoin O'Broin said the failure to deal with empty units was the government's biggest failure:

More from Cork