Local authorities should include the cost of providing social and affordable housing in their development levies, the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution has found.
The committee also wants local authorities to reserve land for social housing in their development plans.
A draft of its report on property rights says that "social housing" should be included in the definition of "public infrastructure and facilities" in Section 48 of the Planning and Development Act of 2000.
This would empower local authorities to include the cost of social housing in their determination of development levies.
Such a measure would have the effect of increasing the development levies, which have already provoked political controversy.
However, the all-party committee argues that special interventions are required to increase the supply of social housing because a property boom tends to "magnetically attract" all production resources into meeting market demand.
"At some basic level, the provision of a certain amount of social housing for those who cannot provide accommodation because of limited means should be seen as part of the basic supports of civilised society," the report says.
"This should be seen as part of the infrastructure needed for society to operate and should be provided and funded in the same way as other basic infrastructure."
The report says public bodies should not have to pay the full market value for land acquired for social and affordable housing under compulsory purchase orders.
This was especially so, it said, "because the increase in the value of the land will have largely resulted from the action of public bodies through rezoning or the provision of infrastructure".
The report says the reservation of land for social and affordable housing in development plans would ensure a greater supply of such housing "without influence from external market and competitive forces".
Such a measure would also enable residential areas to be planned in a more socially inclusive manner and help control the cost of zoned lands designated for social and affordable housing, the report added.
The committee said it was impressed with the clarity of the case presented to it by organisations such as the Conference of Religious in Ireland, Simon, Threshold, the Irish Traveller Movement and the Irish Council for Social Housing.
