Government sources say "progress is being made" after a meeting between Fine Gael and Labour ministers over the housing crisis.

It's understood that the environment minister Alan Kelly and the finance minister Michael Noonan met to discuss the matter after a cabinet subcommittee this afternoon.

Officials from the Taoiseach and Tánaiste's offices were also present at the meeting between the two ministers.

However there was no substantive agreement on issues like rent certainty, which has been a point of dispute between the two, and more meetings are expected later in the week.

Meanwhile a Labour spokesman has denied claims from Fianna Fáil's Barry Cowen - who claims that Labour's party executive approved a compromise plan last week.

Deputy Cowen says the announcement is being delayed only as a PR exercise by the ministers involved:

It's been claimed that two more families are becoming homeless every day because of the government's failure to agree measures to ease the rental crisis.

That's according to Focus Ireland, which has repeated its calls for immediate measures to offer 'rent certainty' for tenants.

The group is also asking the government to increase rent supplement payments - which the government previously ruled out, because it might increase rent for everyone else.

Head of advocacy Mike Allen says there's nothing to back up that claim: