Minister Willie Penrose has said today he cannot compel NAMA to release properties to help take long-term homeless people off the streets.

However he says it may be possible to acquire a significant number of extra houses through consultation with the National Assets Management Agency.

The Housing Minister made the remarks at a conference to mark world homeless day organised by Focus Ireland which wants the government to set new targets to end long term homelessness.

Mike Allen from Focus Ireland says it is a growing problem.

“The official figures are out of date – but we estimate from what we know and see on the ground there’s about 5,000 people – or just over 3,000 households – are homeless across Ireland; that’s the sort of number” he said.

“Given the amount of housing that’s a available and empty – not all of it is suitable but some of it is certainly suitable – we think that a very substantial proportion of that should be possible to be made available for social housing for people moving out of homelessness” he added.