NEW FIGURES PUBLISHED by the Department of the Environment have shown that there are now more than 1,000 homeless children in Ireland.

The data for March looks at the number of homeless people both in Dublin and around the rest of the country.

In total it was found that there is 3,081 homeless people across Ireland.

There are 2,059 homeless people in Dublin – more than across the rest of the country.

Of these, 1,488 are adults with no dependants. A total of 411 family units are also homeless.

These family units are made up of 571 adults and 911 dependants.

Throughout the rest of the country there is 1,022 homeless people, of which 60 are family units with a total of 143 children.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has asked that local authorities set aside half of their new housing allocations for homeless families.

Changing picture

This follows news last month that the number of homeless people sleeping rough in Dublin had seen its biggest decrease ever. 

The last rough sleeper count carried out by officials from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive found 105 people sleeping rough on the night of 14 April. A decrease of 38% from November 2014 when 168 people were found sleeping rough.

Read: Investigation finds garda use of pepper spray against homeless man was justified

Also: Homeless man found dead in Phoenix Park had €140,000 in his bank account