Should 'empty nesters' be forced to downsize when their property becomes too big for their needs? Could this be a solution to the housing crisis?

Karl Deeter of Irish Mortgage Brokers thinks so.

"There are 5,000 homes in Dublin where there's just one person living in a two, three, four or five-bedroom home."

"At the same time, in the inner city, there are 18 cases of five or more people living in a one-bedroom property, and in that same area there are 118 examples of one person living in a four-bedroom house."

Councillor Daithí Doolan, chair of the Dublin City Council housing committee, says we're missing the bigger picture: "1.8% of our housing stock is empty, so we don't have enough units to move people into."

"If we build more units we can encourage people out of city council accommodation and downsize into apartments."

But Karl says we're not using what we have correctly.

"I'm not saying that we don't need more, but it's a crying shame that we are using the existing homes we have so badly that it is being done to the exclusion of good, decent people who correctly warrant those homes and to the detriment of the homeless."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen