Homelessness charity the Peter McVerry Trust is calling for a compulsory purchase scheme for vacant homes.

It follows the release of figures from The Housing Agency, indicating up to 250,000 houses are lying empty around the country.

The charity wants tough new tax measures to get empty houses back into circulation.

Pat Doyle CEO of Peter McVerry Trust said “We need to see a massive programme of investment to stop people becoming homeless. This funding must come from Departments like Social Protection, Children and Youth Affairs, Justice, Health and Finance. These Departments need to finally step up and play a critical role in allowing people to fall through the net into homelessness.”

April’s homeless figures show that 6,189 people are now homeless, a net increase of 226 on the March 2016 figures.

Meanwhile, new figures from Focus Ireland show 74 families became newly homeless in Dublin last month.

366 families and 731 children became homeless in the capital in the first 4 months of this year.