The Minister for Housing has said that "radical thinking" is needed to fix a "significant shortfall" in delivering apartments.
Responding to a question from Labour's Conor Sheehan in the Dáil, James Browne said it is "very clear" that "apartment delivery has collapsed".
The Fianna Fáil minister insisted that he is "determined to tackle" short-term letting which is allowing companies to make "unacceptable" profits.
Short-term letting "is putting huge pressure on our rental sector and indeed on our homeless sector," he said during parliamentary questions.
However, he added that it is "quite difficult to detect and gather the necessary evidence" to confront these firms.
His comments come after the Irish Times reported that the State is on track to deliver less than 20% of the apartments it aimed for under a key scheme.
Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin "strongly" urged that the Planning and Development Act should be amended to find a solution.
His proposal is to allow "planning authorities to apply administrative spot fines to platforms like Airbnb for every day that they advertise properties that aren't in compliance with planning law".
This would remove the "onerous" task currently facing local authorities of gathering legal evidence, he said.
