The chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee has said that the main problem to solving homelessness is the lack of a supply of housing.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey said that until there is more supply, the problem cannot be solved.
She accepted that there is much more to be done but said that behind the scenes, a lot is being achieved.
She added that it is important to remember that the Government was beginning from a base point of nearly zero.
Ms Bailey said that family hubs, while not ideal, were better than hotels for families.
She added that the social housing building programme dwindled in 2009 and this was a huge factor in today's problems.
Ms Bailey also said she believed comments by the Director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, Eileen Gleeson, were taken out of context and that no one could accuse her of lacking in compassion.
She said she did not agree with Ms Gleeson’s comments but they were taken out of context.
Earlier this week, the Director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute said that a rise in homelessness is inevitable as house and rent prices continue to rise.
Tom Healy was speaking after research by the Economic and Social Research Institute suggested that house prices could rise by 20% in real terms over the next three years due to strong economic growth and only a modest increase in house building.
Mr Healy said that a 20% increase in house prices over the coming years was quite likely. He also said that this was not affordable for the average worker.
'Bad week' for public debate on homelessness
Meanwhile Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government has said this has been a bad week for the public debate about homelessness.
Eoin Ó Broin said comments made by the chair of the Housing Agency Conor Skehan, and Ms Gleeson have hurt homeless people and those who were previously homeless.
Yesterday, Ms Gleeson said that unauthorised volunteers who help homeless people were well intentioned, but they do not have an end game.
She said their intervention can prevent those in need from availing of supports that professionals can give in order to help move people out of rough sleeping and permanent homelessness.
Mr Skehan said that it was correct for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to say that Ireland had a low rate of homelessness by international standards.
He said that homelessness was a dreadful thing but it was normal and does happen.
He said that there were currently homeless crises in Germany and Spain, adding that the Government was not doing anything wrong.
Mr Skehan said the challenge was to see if the Government was dealing with the problem effectively and compassionately.
This morning, Mr Ó Broin said claims that Ireland's homelessness is low by international standards have no factual basis.
He said Sinn Féin was putting together alternative solutions but many of these constructive suggestions have been rejected by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
He said Sinn Féin has called for large scale, publically funded council-led developments of mixed tenure estates, but said former housing minister, Simon Coveney, and Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy have been opposing these measures.
He said the State is under funding social housing.
