The Government has insisted that families in emergency accommodation will not be displaced by Pope Francis' visit in August.
Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis raised the impact of the Papal visit on homeless accommodation during the busy peak tourism period of August.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit Ireland for the World Meeting of Families from 21 to 26 August.
"With the expected crowds and the peak season for tourists, accommodation will be impossible to get," Mr Ellis told the Dáil this evening, adding that prices would also be inflated.
He warned of a "major crisis" for homeless families.
However, Minister of State at the Department of Housing Damien English said homeless families already in emergency accommodation would not be affected by the visit and contingency plans are in place for those new families presenting as homeless during that period.
"The difficulties that might happen at peak times, or when there are events on, are to do with new presentations. They will not affect existing families in hotels," Mr English said.
He added that "new accommodation solutions coming on stream on a weekly basis" which would help reduce the numbers depending on emergency accommodation.
"Pope Francis is the last man on earth that would want to see vulnerable people driven out of their emergency accommodation," the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil Seán Ó Fearghaíl commented as the debated concluded.
