The Government has claimed that the level of social housing being delivered has increased significantly when compared with this time last year.
Amid heavy criticism of delays in the delivery of such accommodation, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, urban renewal and developing areas, Batt O'Keeffe, said 1,453 social houses and 487 affordable units were provided in the first quarter of 2007.
According to the Department of the Environment's quarterly housing bulletin, published today, the figures for social housing represent an increase of 61 per cent on the same period in 2006. A further 11,360 local authority social housing units were under way by the end of 2006, it states.
One-third of the 487 affordable housing units provided in the first three months were in Dublin, the figures reveal. However, the bulletin does not state whether the figure for affordable houses represents an increase or decrease on last year.
Elsewhere, the figures show that 444 controversial Part V social and affordable housing units were provided in the first three months of 2007, up 26 per cent on the first quarter of 2006.
Since 2002, developers have been permitted to negotiate their way out of providing 20 per cent social and affordable housing in any development through such means as a land swap, payment to the council or building the equivalent social and affordable housing elsewhere. A further 4,859 of these Part V units were deemed to be in progress at the end of March 2007.
In the bulletin, the department also states that, based on the number of electricity meters installed by ESB networks, a total of 20,018 housing units were completed nationally in the first three months of 2007. Some 4,386 of these were in Dublin and 6,217 were in the greater Dublin area.
However, it added that more recent data showed that 38,978 housing units had been completed by the end of June.
"While there are indications of some easing in housing activity, some 1,600 units are currently being completed each week throughout the country," it noted.
Similarly, the figures reveal that 16,913 new housing units were started nationally in the first three months of the year, with almost 9,000 of these in the Dublin and greater Dublin area alone. This represents a decrease of almost 8 per cent nationally when compared with the first three months of 2006.
More up-to-date data also reveal that, at about 31,600, the number of housing units started in the first six months of this year fell by 22 per cent, when compared with the same period in 2006.
In an indication of a slowdown in mortgage lending, more than 24,500 loans worth some €6.4 billion were approved for house purchases in the first quarter of 2007. This represents a decrease of almost 22 per cent on the number approved a year earlier.
Some 21,181 loans worth €4.816 billion were paid for house purchases in the first quarter of 2007, again representing a decrease of 18 per cent in volume when compared to 2006.
The average price of new and second-hand houses in Dublin fell slightly in the first three months of this year when compared with the end of 2006, the figures also show.
However, prices for new and second-hand houses in Cork have risen by as much as €19,000, while prices for the State as a whole have risen by up to €8,000.
Mr O'Keeffe said there is "every reason to expect the house building industry to continue delivering at a high level, even if easing back from last year's record".