The death of three homeless people in Dublin over the weekend has prompted calls for an inquiry into the adequacy of services for those most at risk.
Homeless charity Trust says although the provision of emergency accommodation has increased in the city, certain shelters remain unsuitable for many homeless people.
The charity's director, Alice Leahy, says her organisation has witnessed a significant increase in the number of people looking to use its services in recent months.
She said the problem is not being adequately addressed by the Government, claiming it tended to see the problem as a shortage in housing.
Postmortems are to be carried out on the bodies of three homeless people who died in separate incidents on Friday and Saturday in the city.
A 17-year-old boy died of a suspected drug overdose in the Mater Hospital on Saturday night. He is understood to have been homeless for some time and to have been assigned hostel accommodation in the north inner city.
On Friday the bodies of a man and woman were found separately within walking distance of the Camden Street and Harcourt Street areas of the city.
Labour's justice spokesman Joe Costello described the deaths as "alarming" and questioned whether sufficient services were in place to deal with the problem.
Mr Costello said outreach services that deal with homeless people on a daily basis needed to be established.
He called for an inquiry into the efficacy of the services.
