The Taoiseach has defended a controversial video shared by the Department of Housing, which provides advice for adults forced to move back home with their parents.
The video, produced by the State's Housing Agency with youth organisation SpunOut, has been criticised by the Opposition and online.
Micheál Martin said: "Sometimes we need to avoid kneejerk reactions to genuine initiatives by organisations such as SpunOut, the Housing Agency, and look at it in the broader context.
"The big issue is to provide more housing as fast as we can and that’s what we are doing.
"We have a specific target in mind in terms of homelessness this year, but also more broadly in terms of getting more housing built as a result of the housing plan.
"The challenge is 300,000 over the next five years."
Minister for Housing James Browne said his department was "misconceived" in sharing the video.
He told an Oireachtas Committee on Housing that an official from the Department of Housing, who was "well-intentioned, maybe misconceived", reposted it, adding that there was "no conspiracy".
He said these young people are why the Government is "trying to activate the market so we can get more homes delivered".
"By increasing the supply is the only way that those people are going to get out of those bedrooms and into somewhere where they can live independently, safely and securely," he added.
The minister said the video was prepared by SpunOut and "put out by young people to talk to young people".
He was responding to a question by Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne, who said the video was a "let them eat cake" moment for the department, which has "really upset people".
"This has actually caused huge hurt and frustration to the hundreds of thousands who are locked at home, who are actually in a form of hidden homelessness," he said.
'Beyond satire'
Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the video as a "move beyond satire", saying it would be comical if it wasn't so serious," she said.
Speaking during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil, Ms Bacik said the Government's housing policies look like "busy work" rather than a "blueprint for change", adding that building targets will be missed again this year and the number of children who are homeless is "shockingly climbing" towards the 5,500 mark.
Responding, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said there has been the highest provision of social homes "in decades".
He said the State has to "narrow the viability gap" and the Government has taken measures to address this.
He said Ms Bacik did not suggest any measure she would take to "increase overall housing supply".
"Housing supply would fall under your proposals because you reject every measure that's been taken in terms of narrowing the viability gap," said Mr Chambers.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dáil that the video "would be laughable if it wasn’t so disgraceful".
He said his son has moved back in with him and "doesn’t need a Government video to tell him to do household chores".
He said the Government is "admitting defeat" on the housing crisis and is "essentially putting up its hands and saying we cannot solve the housing crisis".
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said there is a real need in "thousands of households", and the sharing by the department of the video is a indictment on it.
'Huge hole' in Govt housing plan - SF
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said a report has revealed a "huge hole" in the "very centre" of the Government's housing plan.
The report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland showed that despite help from the State, affordability remains a huge issue for buyers, with sales prices for a two-bedroom suburban apartment ranging from €480,000 to €650,000.
To afford these, a first-time buyer couple would require a combined salary ranging between €108,000 and €146,000.
Mr Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing at the Committee on Housing if he was concerned by "significant" increases outlined in the report.
"You're not going to be able to deliver anything close to affordability even in cost-rental schemes with these all-in developments," he said
"Do you accept that there is now a problem here that you didn’t fully anticipate in your plan," he asked.
Mr Ó Broin also asked if the Government’s housing plan would be revised to reflect this new information, calling it information the minister "clearly" did not have when he produced the plan.
He said the Government has reduced apartment design standards to allow "higher density, smaller and darker" developments.
Mr Browne said apartment specifications are being "brought back in line with what would be standard across the European Union".
"We have to get them built," he said.
'Viability and affordability'
The minister said his department has taken significant measures to support "viability and affordability", calling housing "the defining social and economic challenge of our time".
Mr Ó Broin asked who is going to buy apartments at the prices detailed in the report.
"Housing bodies won’t be able to buy them," he said. "How can you increase supply when the prices of the units are so high that there will be no buyers?
Mr Browne said he is "very conscious" of the "cost of delivering apartments and housing in this country".
"That’s why we have taken significant viability measures," he said.
Asked if he had "even read the report today", Mr Browne said the Government does not take any report "as gospel".
"We take into consideration any report," he said. "But we also don’t blindly accept any report either."
"We need to get apartments and houses built and we need people to be able to afford them. That’s what we are doing."
Eviction ban suggested by Social Democrats
Mr Hearne asked the Government to introduce a three-year eviction ban, raising the case of a solicitor who is about to be made homeless and cannot find somewhere to rent below €2,500 a month.
Mr Browne said an eviction ban "would kill supply".
"Your focus seems to be being populist to protect everybody who’s in rental accommodation at the moment," he said. "I don’t have that luxury."
Mr Hearne said it is wrong to say he is being populist.
"I am saying this because it is the humanitarian crisis that is going on," he said.
"I would think and hope that you would want to do something more. This is an emergency."
Additional reporting Róisín Cullen
