The Taoiseach has said the Government is working with local authorities to increase the amount of emergency accommodation ahead of the expiry of the eviction ban at the end of the month.
Leo Varadkar was responding to a report from Sinn Féin that at least 17 local authorities have said they have no capacity to accommodate those becoming homeless.
Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy warned of a stark shortage of emergency beds across the country, including in the cities of Galway, Limerick, Cork and Dublin.
Speaking in Washington DC, Mr Varadkar said local authorities were "ramping up" their provision of emergency accommodation,
But he added: "I don't believe emergency accommodation is the solution. It’s necessary in some cases, but it’s not the solution.
"And the vast majority of people who have been served notices to quit don’t end up in emergency accommodation.
"They are either able to find alternative accommodation, which they often do with the help of the State and our various different schemes.
"We are working with local authorities to increase the amount of emergency accommodation available."
Last week, the Government confirmed that the ban on evictions, which was set to end on 31 March, would not be extended due to concerns that an extension would damage the supply of rental properties in the long term.
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In a statement, Mr Carthy said thousands of people made homeless next month will have nowhere to go.
He called on Government backbench TDs to consider supporting his party's motion on extending the eviction ban until the end of January 2024. It will be debated in the Dáil next Tuesday and voted on the following day.
Mr Carthy said: "There are 3,000 eviction notices that will fall due in April, and the stark reality for people who will be made homeless next month is that they will have nowhere to go.
"That is the question that has to be put to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Minister for Housing: where will they tell people to go?
"That is also a question Government backbenchers and independents must consider when Sinn Féin's motion to extend the eviction ban is voted on next week.
"The Government has yet to answer it because they are completely removed from the lived realities of working families
"This is an incredibly traumatic time for so many working people who never envisaged finding themselves in such a situation, a situation that no other generation in the history of this State were in."
Tánaiste says State 'turning corner' on house builds
Earlier, the Tánaiste said the State was "without question" turning the corner in respect of new house builds.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Micheál Martin said the pandemic and inflation damaged confidence in the market last year, however a settled situation over this year will result in further progress.
He said that houses need to be constructed more rapidly, noting that 30,000 houses were built last year, with 9,000 in the last quarter.
The Tánaiste said the Government and local authorities will do all they can to prevent people becoming homeless.
Mr Martin said that the key is supply, but in the short-term, more properties will be leased by the Government and a new cost-rental framework is also being examined.
"We need to keep our existing people in the rental market and bring more people into the market," he said, and extending the eviction ban would have defeated both of these purposes.
He said the Government will develop a package of measures for the next Budget to retain existing landlords and attract new people to the market, but that rushed decisions should be avoided.
However, he said, the situation for smaller landlords could be improved.
He described the Sinn Féin motion as a "cynical exercise" and said Fianna Fáil would oppose it.
Mr Vardakar defended the Tánaiste's comments about the housing supply situation, saying Mr Martin had spoken about turning the tide in new house construction, not the housing crisis as a whole.
He said: "After the crash we were down to maybe 5,000 homes a year at one point.
"In my first term as Taoiseach, we got up to 20,000, and now we are at 30,000 a year if you include student accommodation and derelicts brought back into use, which you should."
The Taoiseach said the Sinn Féin motion simply puts off the end of the eviction ban until next January, which would see the same issues arising, but the numbers involved would be worse.
Govt 'dancing to the tune of speculators' - Boyd Barrett
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett described the Tánaiste's comments on house building as "absolutely shocking".
Thousands of people are facing the prospect of homelessness when they have done nothing wrong, he said, and the idea that they can wait until October is ridiculous.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he said the Government's housing policy is "dancing to the tune of speculators and private developers".
This policy is dangerous and an "accident waiting to happen", he said, adding that developers could easily decide that building houses is no longer profitable.
Mr Boyd Barrett said that houses being built in Dublin are not social housing stock but are being supplied by private developers.
