The Government has set up a €200m fund to finance infrastructure in an effort to restart stalled building sites.
The money will be used to pay for water connections, electricity links and roads for building projects.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Minister for Housing James Browne said: "I can think of one piece of land in a particular county that has quite a lot of infrastructure in place, but it is missing quite an expensive access road that the local authority would never be able to fund."
He added financing the road would "unlock a significant amount of housing in that particular site".
He said: "There are multiple sites like that right around the country in every local authority area."
Local authorities will be able apply for the funding next month and the finance will be available from January.
The Minister made the comments at the first meetings of two groups aimed at providing infrastructure for building projects.
The first group is made up of representatives of the building industry and property investors.
The second includes Uisce Éireann, Eirgrid, ESB, the Land Development Agency and Government Departments.
