Candidates in the European and local elections reacted angrily yesterday to a report that the real cost of houses in the Republic is now the second-highest in the EU.
Sinn Fein's candidate for the Dublin European Parliament constituency, Mr Sean Crowe, described the current housing market as a crisis, and said the latest data would not surprise more than 100,000 people on local authority waiting lists throughout the Republic.
"Successive governments, linked as they are to many of the large property speculators in the city, have allowed this situation to develop. They seem unwilling or unable to realistically tackle Ireland's growing housing problem," Mr Crowe added.
Labour's spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, a candidate for the party in the local elections in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, said the Dresdner Kleinwort Benson data had exposed the Government's failure to cope with demand for housing.
"The latest report confirmed the findings of the Labour Party Housing Commission report," Mr Gilmore said. "The average price of a house, relative to earnings . . . doubled between the years 1994 and 1998. For thousands of people this means they are priced out of the housing market and have no chance of owning a home of their own."
The report from the brokerage house showed that a typical urban home now costs more than 18 times average annual disposable income in the Republic, compared to 12.3 times in France, 15.9 times in Germany and 12.7 times in Britain.
A decade ago, urban homes in the Republic cost 11.3 times disposable income, and were comparatively cheaper than all EU countries except Belgium and Denmark. Now they are more expensive than all except the Netherlands.
Homes in the United States are still cheapest, at 8.3 times income.