A senator told RTE's Claire Byrne on Monday how he was forced to sleep in car twice after failing to get accommodation in Dublin for the night.
Fianna Fáil Senator Eugene Murphy, from Roscommon, said he was left with no option but to sleep in his car in a service station after struggling to find a hotel room in the capital for less than €200.
This comes as demand for hotel rooms soars with the return of tourists to Ireland following the lifting of Covid restrictions as well as the influx of Ukrainian refugees being placed in temporary housing.
Senator Murphy said that over the 10 years he has worked in the Oireachtas, he has never experienced this difficulty in finding accommodation before and was only able to book a hotel room once in the last three weeks.
"Particularly over the last month, six weeks, it has been particularly difficult to get a room anywhere in the Dublin region," he told RTE'S Today with Claire Byrne programme on Monday.
"Just to put that in context, I was successful in getting a room one night in the last three [weeks] and in the hotel I booked, I tried to book forward for this week and next week and they told me there was not a chance of getting a room.
"There is a difficulty at the moment but I don't want to be whinging about this because there are people in far greater difficulty out there in relation to housing, this is a matter we'll get over but it definitely is happening at the moment."
On the occasions he slept in his car, he said he would drive to a service station outside of Dublin for a safe place to sleep and then head back to the Dail early in the morning.
"I would have got halfway down the country, I would pull in at a forecourt [petrol station], at least you have the lights and you have people knocking around," he said.
"Usually around Mullingar, I would pull in at a forecourt and sleep there and about 6am in the morning, I would wake up and head for Dublin.
"You would try and shave and have a change of clothes when you get to the office and get a bit of breakfast.
"I can assure you you don't feel good in the morning after such an event."
Senator Murphy said he doesn't spend more than €200 a night on a hotel room "as a matter of principle" and he knows a number of other TDs and Senators from rural areas outside Dublin who have also been affected by the shortage of hotel rooms.
He said they are reluctant to talk about it as they are aware of people in much worse circumstances with housing however, if they fail to find a hotel room and need to drive back home they would only get around three hours sleep.
"Particularly if you have a parliamentary party [meeting] or if the Seanad runs late, I wouldn't get out of [work] before 10pm," he said.
"I would be lucky to get home in two hours, so [I'd arrive home] shortly after 12, I would get to bed around 1am, and I would have to be up at 4am in the morning to beat the traffic in the morning to get in before 7.30am through the city.
"So it's difficult and it's tough, you end up in my situation with probably three and a half hours sleep per night and you feel the next day you aren't able to function as you should because of lack of sleep."
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