Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that there was no "quick fix" to the housing crisis and the Government had never pretended that it would not take time to solve the problem.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that local authorities, as well as central government, had a role to play, however he rejected that the Government was trying to pass blame.
He said that when it came to developing sites for housing and social housing, it was a shared responsibility between the central government and local government.
Mr Varadkar echoed Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy's view about needing to put the pressure on local authorities to deliver faster.
He said: "I totally accept that this isn't happening quick enough, and that’s why we want to put the pressure on local authorities to deliver faster of the money that’s already pre-allocated in the budget for next year.
"There is an additional €400m for the Department of Housing."
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The Taoiseach said he did not believe the Government had failed in meeting its targets to get thousands of families and people out of emergency accommodation.
To say you have failed is giving up, he said. The Taoiseach added: "We are not giving up."
He said they need to get to 10,000 social housing units over the next ten years, and agreed they were a long way away from it.
Yesterday, Mr Murphy set a deadline of close-of-business today for a number of local authorities to explain why they have not done enough to prevent homelessness figures rising.
He said it was unacceptable that two or three local authorities were not putting in place the solutions, when he had given them the policies, the resources and the money.
The minister said he would have to intervene directly if this continues to happen.
Speaking later after his party’s gathering in Galway, the Taoiseach rounded on some councils in Dublin, where he said Sinn Féin and left wing parties were not accepting their share of responsibility to tackle the housing crisis.
He suggested that they could get those councils to place compulsory purchase orders on derelict properties.
"It's not good enough for them to be always playing the blame game. What they should also do is take their share of responsibility in solving the problem," he said.
Ó Broin calls for housing minister to resign
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has again called for the minister to resign.
Speaking on the same programme, he said Mr Murphy's threat to use emergency powers to strip certain local authorities of their powers to provide emergency accommodation was a "distraction" and an attempt to deflect blame onto local authorities for his Government's failings.
Mr Ó Broin said the minister "clearly has to go" and said Sinn Féin would go ahead with its vote of no confidence in the minister later this month.
He said there were a number of local authorities that were slower at dealing with homelessness, but that in some authorities targets were too low.
Minister of State at the Department of Housing Damien English said Mr Murphy was not trying to blame anyone in relation to the housing crisis.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O’Rourke, he said it was about Mr Murphy wanting more delivery from councils and that the minister had given them the money to do that.
Mr English also said that certain local authorities had delivered a range of housing schemes and that there were more in the pipeline.
The housing crisis was discussed by TDs and senators at Fine Gael’s think-in for several hours yesterday.
At the meeting in Galway, it was confirmed that Mr Murphy is due to bring proposals to Cabinet next week to establish the Land Development Agency, which will be funded to the tune of €1.25bn.
Meanwhile, a housing policy analyst has said the Government reliance on using the Housing Assistance Payment scheme and private rentals to tackle social housing needs was hindering progress in the area.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Mel Reynolds said that for every local authority home built or purchased, 29 HAP arrangements are entered into, which are more costly to the State.
Mr Reynolds, who is also an architect, pointed to the very low rate of builds across local authorities with a total of 394 houses built last year by local authorities.
He explained that Kerry and Mayo county councils built more houses than all four local Dublin councils last year.
He said that 21 local authorities built no houses in first three months of this year.
