The Opposition has claimed that first-time house buyers are being priced out of the market after a new survey said house prices rose by 12.2 per cent in the first 11 months of the year.
Labour's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said there was little sign of a slowdown in the market, despite predictions of a "soft landing" in the latest survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Irish Permanent.
Mr Gilmore said the 12.2 per cent increase in prices was four times the inflation rate. He accused the Government of failing to deal with the problem.
"Most peoples' incomes will rise only at or around the level of general inflation, so families seeking housing will still find a huge gap between what they can afford and what is available," he said.
He believed the reason for the huge increase was to be found in the cost of building land.
The Fine Gael environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, said young people were expected to pay up to €200,000 for their first home. "House prices have trebled in price since 1997, when this Government took office, and all it has done is make the situation more difficult for young house-purchasers," he said.
"The Government promised to complete the investigation into land hoarding in the greater Dublin area before the end of 2003; it has not happened. Also, the Government-chaired Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, which examined land ownership, has still not completed its report."
