The Minister of State for Housing, Mr Robert Molloy, has conceded that some 45,000 households were on the local authority housing lists.

Based on an assessment carried out six months ago by local authorities he said that 39,176 households were in need of local authority housing. Three years ago that figure was 27,427.

"In addition the housing needs of a further 6,400 households were considered by local authorities as being most suitably met by other housing options, including voluntary housing, rent supplementation and other social housing schemes - compared to a total of 6,047 households similarly assessed in 1996," he said.

However, Labour's Environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said the real number was 50,715. That was the true figure, not the "deducted total" the Minister had quoted, because the Minister's figures referred to last March.

In his own local authority area of Dun Laoghaire the numbers on the waiting list had increased by 400 since March this year and if that was replicated in other areas then the figures published by the Minister could understate the real figure by 20 per cent.

Fine Gael's housing spokesman, Mr Brian Hayes, who introduced the private member's motion, said the housing waiting list had grown by 50 per cent in two years. The motion called on the Government to build 10,000 houses for rent or tenant purchase each year for the next four years.

However, the Minister of State for Housing questioned the figure and said local authorities would be put "to the very pin of their collar" to deliver 22,000 houses in the next four years.

Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, said the figures given by the Minister meant that somewhere in the region of 100,000 people were now seeking accommodation from local authorities." A further 16,000 people were forced by the shortage of local authority accommodation to pay rents for private rented accommodation.

He questioned Mr Molloy's awareness of the hardship, misery and difficulty for family relationships behind the figures of those in need of social housing.

"The Minister of State has now, belatedly, adopted the reasonable targets for which we in Fine Gael have consistently argued. Some 130,000 people now hope that he means what he said." If he did not act he would be harshly judged by the electorate.

Ms Deirdre Clune (FG, Cork South-Central) said the Government had presided over a local authority housing list that had grown by more than 50 per cent. Why, when there was such a surplus in the exchequer, were there so many people on the housing list? she asked.

Ms Clune, who said that when she was elected two years ago the local authorities in Cork said they would welcome representations from her but the one area they could give no commitments or answers on was housing. That was her first introduction to the housing crisis.