New homeless figures for March have shown a slight increase on February.

The Department of Housing has said 6,484 adults and 3,821 children were accessing State-funded emergency accommodation last month.

This translates to four additional adults and 37 additional children in emergency accommodation.

The Homelessness Report is based on data provided by housing authorities.

On the figures, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said: "We continue to put considerable efforts in to prevent people from entering emergency accommodation, while also exiting as many families and individuals from homelessness as possible each month."

He also commented on the results of the Spring Rough Sleeper Count, published by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE).

"I want to welcome the news from the DRHE today that their latest count showed a decrease in the number of people sleeping rough on our streets since last November.

"Our aim is to get people sleeping rough into emergency services and to establish a route to a sustainable tenancy.

"This is why we increased the number of new beds over the winter period and why I am working closely with the Minister for Health to ensure that those rough sleeping and accessing emergency accommodation receive the health supports that they need."

Source: Department of Housing, Planning & Local Government

While the Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) group has claimed "the true figure" of those accessing emergency accommodation "would be closer to 20,000".

ICHH said: "We don't include rough sleepers, families in women's shelters, people in direct provision or people couch surfing or living with family or friends in these figures."

Its CEO Anthony Flynn said: "Once again we have seen further increases in the number of people that are homeless across the State.

"This is a clear indication that homeless services are failing the most vulnerable in our society and rebuilding Ireland has been a total failure.

"The homelessness crisis has increased year on year and we are now in the midst of the worst levels of homelessness in the history of the state and Minister Murphy and his department are directly responsible for this.

"We constantly hear the minister and Taoiseach use terms like disappointing when describing homelessness, however talk is cheap.

"It is their job to bring an end to homelessness however all we seem to get is sound bites with no solutions.

"We continue to pour money down a black hole by relying on the private sector and private landlords to address this emergency and this is a catalyst for the situation we are in now."