The Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has described as "a slight increase" a rise of more than a third in the number of homeless people in Dublin.

The figures published yesterday show a 35% increase year on year, while the number of children in emergency accommodation has gone from just over 900 to more than 2,100 in the past year.

The issue was raised by Fianna Fáil in the Dáil today, but Ms Fitzgerald appeared to play down the rising numbers of homeless.

She told the Dáil: "The new figures we have today are October figures. There is a slight increase, but it does show that there is a slowdown in the rate of increase and that has to be welcomed.

"Of course none of us want to see families having to go into homeless accommodation or hotel accommodation, and the minister has made it absolutely clear that his intention is, and I am sure everybody here would share it, that no family would have to go into hotel accommodation."