A number of major urban development sites have been identified for building new homes across the country as part of the Government's initiative to address the homelessness crisis.
Developers and other members of the construction industry attended a presentation in Dublin today where details of the sites were outlined as the third pillar of the Government's "Rebuilding Ireland" initiative.
Minister for Housing Simon Coveney is establishing a fast-track planning system to enable the building of 30,000 new homes over the next four years.
The new developments would be in major urban centres with a Housing Delivery Office set up to act as a trouble shooter if required.
Mr Coveney plans to double the annual level of residential construction to 25,000 homes and build 47,000 units of social housing in the period up to 2021.
The minister said he also wants to make the best use of existing housing stock.
He said a new rental strategy will be announced by mid-December that will protect tenants while ensuring that new rental properties are still built.
Mr Coveney said there needed to be a balance in responding to unsustainable rent inflation and not putting "the dead hand of regulation on the construction sector and therefore stop any momentum that is starting in building the rental sector".
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil's Spokesperson on Housing Barry Cowen said Mr Coveney "needs to show a greater commitment to actually implementing policy to address the dysfunctional housing market."
Responding to the Government's announcement of the identification of sites for building new homes to address the homelessness crisis, Mr Cowen said the "housing action plan is yet to actually increase the supply of housing."
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