Tánaiste Joan Burton said it had always been a mystery to her that councils could board up perfectly good houses. “I think we will see a very significant change,’’ she said.

Ms Burton was replying in the Dáil to Independent TD Catherine Murphy who expressed doubts that the Government’s housing initiative will work. A housing policy needed three strands, short, medium and long-term, she said.

“It is clear from the document that the focus is almost exclusively on the medium and long-term, referring to 2017-2020, a timeline beyond the lifetime of this Government, and we can understand why,’’ said Ms Murphy. “I can see nothing in the document that will alleviate the current emergency situation that leaves hundreds of children homeless tonight.’’

She said she had hoped to see something that would relax the rent supplement limits which were a key issue forcing people into homelessness.

This year, €344.1 million was available in the social protection budget for rent assistance. That had been reduced to €297 million for next year, a 14 per cent reduction at a time when rents were rising and there was a housing emergency.

Ms Burton said she was very concerned, like Ms Murphy, about any family which had problems securing long-term tenancy or ownership of a family home. The Government’s scheme, she added, represented the largest committed investment by the State in a very long time to a programme of social housing which would see all of the people on the housing list housed over the next few years. Ms Burton said there was no reduction in the funding for renting homes in the private sector.