The Government has revealed that the number of applicants on the waiting list for local authority housing has risen by more than 30% in a three-year period to last March.
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Michael Finneran says applications for homes from people who cannot house themselves jumped from 43,000 in 2005 to 56,000 in March of this year.
Just over half cannot afford a home, a further one-sixth are sharing involuntarily or are in overcrowded conditions and a similar number are medical or compassionate cases.
The vast majority of applicants are under 40, and while more than three quarters are Irish-born, the number of immigrants rose substantially over the three years.
Mr Finneran said over a third of those on the list were getting rent supplement.
He also highlighted local authorities' record output of over 9,000 homes last year, adding that the wider public housing programme looks like providing the same number this year.
An alliance of four major housing charities has criticised the Government for not doing enough about the problem, saying the list has more than doubled in the past decade.
Focus Ireland, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Simon Communities and Threshold urged the Government to do more to tackle the expanding list, which they believe has been further swollen since March by the recession.
