The union asked candidates to sign a pledge that, if elected, they would support the maintenance of budgets for homeless services. IMPACT official Ashley Connolly said the campaign was inspired by Dublin City councillors’ decision to increase homelessness spending in 2014. She said guarantees were now needed to protect funding in future years.

"We're enormously grateful to those candidates who put their name to our campaign pledge. Since this campaign started, there has been a widespread acknowledgement that the country is in the grip of a housing crisis. There is a huge challenge facing us, but it now looks like the political system has woken up to it. Homelessness has moved from the margins to the centre of the debate," she said.

Derek Beattie of IMPACT's Boards and Voluntary Agencies branch said members' involvement in the campaign was crucial. "We put a challenge to our members to seek a pledge of support from candidates. They responded, and we seem to have engaged the local election candidates just as national awareness of the seriousness of our homeless crisis has increased. There's a huge amount of work to be done, and IMPACT members working in homeless services are at the frontline of the response," he said.