Solidarity-PBP TD Mick Barry has called on TDs who are also landlords not to vote on his party's anti-eviction bill, which is being debated in the Dáil this evening.
During the debate, Mr Barry said that 15 Fianna Fáil TDs and 14 Fine Gael TDs are declared landlords, while four cabinet ministers and five junior ministers are also landlords - compared to 5% of the population who are landlords.
Among the bill's provisions is a ban on renovation as a grounds for ending a lease.
However, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy rejected Mr Barry's call for the TDs who are landlords not to vote.
The minister also said the bill risked undermining the rental sector, even if the intentions were noble.
Earlier Sinn Féin's Housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said that it was "very worrying" that just 35% of the government's social housing targets have been met up to third quarter of this year.
However, Minister Murphy told the Oireachtas Housing Committee that he expected the figure to rise considerably in the last quarter, pointing out that last year 60% of the targets were completed in the final quarter.
Labour's Housing spokesperson Jan O'Sullivan said there is "no realistic prospect of the full target of social housing being delivered by the end of the year".
Mr Murphy also said he wanted to see new legislation to penalise landlords who breach rent caps passed by the Oireachtas as soon as possible.
He also appealed to TDs to faciliate the quick passage of The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill.
"We need to get this done quickly because these are important powers that are going to protect people," Mr Murphy said.
He also said he wanted legislation to regulate short term lets in place by June.
