Accusations over the weekend leveled at homeless charities claimed they were failing to make use of available funds to build and buy social social housing.

The Housing Finance Agency claim they have the capacity to lend up to €500m, and that only five of 13 charities were availing of this funding.

Focus Ireland has hit back at comments by Labour TD Joanna Tuffy, saying: "The sad truth is that while Focus Ireland is in the process of borrowing millions of euro to build new homes, it is incredibly cheaper for us to borrow it from commercial banks than from the Government's HFA fund - even in the middle of a housing crisis".

The Labour TD criticised a number of charities for not accessing the HFA fund.

The current homeless problem has been labeled as a 'national emergency' by Focus Ireland, but Ms Tuffy has highlighted that the charity still has not sought funding from the HFA, despite qualifying as an applicant earlier this year.

Ms Tuffy, Labour TD for Dublin Mid-West, told Newstalk Breakfast this is a legitimate concern.

While Mike Allen, director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, says these accusations are false.