Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has said he is not opposed to declaring the housing crisis a "national emergency".
It comes following calls for the Government to declare an emergency over the crisis.
A private members motion tabled in the Dáil states that precedence for declaring a national emergency exists in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Acts, which were introduced to cut pay during following the bailout.
The Green Party, the Social Democrats and some independents are supporting the motion, which they say would entitle the State to delimit by law the exercise of private property rights.
Mr Murphy told the Dáil that he was not opposed to declaring such an emergency "but only if I believe that such a declaration would be more than tokenistic".
He said he would only do it if he believed "that such a declaration could actually lead to new powers, powers that were needed to fix our housing and homelessness problem, powers that we did not already have".
Mr Murphy said: "If my understanding is correct the motion seeks to declare an emergency, and in doing so suspend or delimit some parts of the constitution that deal with individual property rights.
"We can't just suspend parts of the constitution by decree or by legislation" he said.
Tipperary TD Seamus Healy said the housing emergency cannot be fully ended until huge numbers of social houses are built by local authorities.
"Thousands of children are being damaged now ... Irish society is treating these children cruelly," he said.
"The situation is getting worse, and while this continues, this is not a civilised society," he added.
The Social Democrats co-leader, Catherine Murphy, said if the constitution was an impediment to dealing with the housing crisis, it needed to be challenged or changed.
Earlier, legislation to direct social media platforms to remove posts that risk prejudicing criminal trials has been introduced in the Dáil.
The proposed law, tabled by the Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan, would see internet companies face fines if they fail to comply with court orders to remove posts which are deemed to be in contempt of court.
Introducing the bill, Ms Madigan said it would put contempt law on a statutory basis.
"We live in the era of fake news," she said.
"Contemptuous material can be posted from anywhere in the globe"
"Why is it that inaccurate comments that posted on social media are not treated the same way as other media?" she asked.
She said the court system needs to be able to deal with online postings.
Her law, she said would give the courts the power to remove posts with "takedown orders" and there would be repercussions if the orders are not abided by.
"This is about the justice system adapting to changes in technology, while still protecting the right to a fair trial," she said.
She added that her legislation would protect "innocent publications or good faith comments on public affairs."
She said the bill modernises the law of contempt in Ireland and will allow the courts to deal with ever changing technology.
The legislation has now been introduced into the Dáil and will be debated in the coming weeks.
Fianna Fáil object to Dáil taking midterm break
The Fianna Fáil leader has objected to proposals for TDs to take a midterm break next week.
The Dáil is due to rise on Thursday 26 October and is not due back until Tuesday 7 November.
However Micheál Martin said he wanted to "formally object" to the proposal.
"We're just back, and there's a lot of legislation to get through," he said.
The Fianna Fáil leader said it was "excessive" for the Dáil to take next week off.
"I think the Dail should reconvene on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd, which used to be a normal occurrence" he said.
"It seems to me that the Dáil is going to sit less and less"
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, who was standing in for the Taoiseach during Leaders’ Questions, said "these issues have been discussed at the Dáil Business Committee, there was an agreement at the committee and that's where we should leave it".
Independent TD Mattie McGrath said he was concerned for the "staff who had booked holidays who are being thrown into this arrangement just because of grandstanding by Michael Martin".
The Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, said the Business Committee did discuss the matter, reservations were raised, but a calendar was produced so that staff and members would know in advance what was happening.
The Fianna Fáil proposal to alter the arrangements for next week was not agreed to.
Call for funding for new SAVI report
Meanwhile there have been calls for the Government to fund research on sexual abuse and violence.
Sinn Féin's deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said the research currently available is 15 years old and needs to be updated.
The Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland report dates back to 2002.
Ms McDonald said a new report of this nature would cost €1 million.
"We could have five reports for the Taoiseach's vanity project, the Strategic Communications Unit," she said.
Mr Coveney said if the right thing to do is find €1m to fund the research, the Government would do that.
