You should be able to go on the social housing list if you are unemployed. If you do manage to get on the housing list - it will take a couple of years to get a house. My friend is on it about 5 years now.
You need to be very careful here.
When the house is gone whether it be by selling or reposession - you need to have somewhere to live.....
You could apply for rent allowance and get a landlord that will take social welfare cheques. This is being phased out, so I don't know at what stage it will be at by the time you no longer have your home.
It is not as easy as having a home today, selling tomorrow and having a social house a day later. You need to have somewhere to go while you are waiting on a social house and it looks like either moving back to the family home or renting is your only medium term option. Anyone that has social houses will be holding onto them, it is very hard to get them. The easiest way is to be homeless.
You should go to the social housing department and ask them for the list of acceptance criteria's that you need to meet in order to qualify for a social house. Also ask them currently how many people are on the list and what is the expected time frame if you got accepted onto the list that you would be offered a home.
Try this link for contacts [broken link removed]
This sub link for FAQ's [broken link removed]
Found this too [broken link removed]
Application form
http://www.dlrcoco.ie/media/media,2969,en.pdf