Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has said that the demand for housing is going to get worse before it gets better, however he maintained that Government policies were working because more houses would be built in 2018.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week In Politics, Mr Murphy said: "The need will continue to increase because [of] our demographics [and] our population is growing faster than anywhere else in Europe."
He added: "We are going to build significantly more houses next year - not just the State directly, through social house building, but also the private sector."
However, Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen criticised the Government's action on homelessness saying: "They are trying their best, but what they are doing is just not working."
Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan said it was "very disturbing" to hear comments, including from the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, that Ireland has one of the lowest levels of homelessness.
She said she hoped "the narrative will stop."
Last week, a report by the Economic and Social Research Institute suggested that house prices could rise by 20% in real terms over the next three years because of strong economic growth and only a modest increase in house building.
