Dublin City Council is reconsidering a plan to house homeless on a cruise ship.
The idea of renting a private cruise ship for 100 to 150 homeless individuals was previously dropped.
There are 1,367 families in homeless accommodation in Dublin alone, latest figures show.
On Thursday afternoon, the Irish government was defeated in a vote on a cross-party motion to declare housing and homelessness a national emergency.
The motion, tabled by Solidarity-People Before Profit, received support from all parties outside government.
The motion was supported by 83 votes, with one TD abstaining and 43 voting against it.
Speaking in the Dáil, tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Simon Coveney said the delay in delivery of social housing is about the capacity of local authorities to deliver at the pace they are being asked to deliver.
Latest figures from the Department of Housing show that there were 9,891 people accessing emergency accommodation across the Republic of Ireland – 6,024 adults and 3,867 children.
In Dublin, the number of homeless families registered has increased by 229 families since September 2017.