Some 30 per cent of all houses in the State are new, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said.
"The Government is delivering strongly on social and affordable housing programmes, with 13,000 people benefiting under the broad range of programmes in operation since 2004."
He added that record levels of funding were being allocated to local authorities for their housing programmes this year.
The total Exchequer provision for both capital and current expenditure was €1.3 billion, which was 20 per cent over the figure for last year, and represented a seven-fold increase in the past seven years.
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said there had been no debate in the House on the report from the National Economic and Social Council on housing.
He urged the Government to implement the recommendation that there should be an increase in permanent social housing units, owned and managed by local authorities, of some 73,000 units between this year and 2012.
Mr Ahern said it was envisaged that more than 11,000 units would be delivered from the various affordable schemes between this year and 2007. The needs of a further 6,000 households were expected to be met through other social housing measures, including houses completed by the voluntary co-operative sector. The long-term housing needs of approximately 5,000 current recipients of rent supplements would be addressed through new rental accommodation schemes, Mr Ahern added.
Mr Ó Caoláin insisted that the housing programme outlined by the Taoiseach would not address the requirements of 50,000 housing units for people who were still on local authority waiting lists.
"Many of those new homes in that private sector area are being bought by investors and property speculators, people who are buying second and subsequent homes only to become landlords and rack-rent landlords as is often the case."
