The Government has promised to present a remediation scheme to tackle more than 100,000 defective apartments before the end of the year.
A working group report that was published earlier this year estimated the cost could run to between €1.5bn and €2.5bn.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil today that Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien is well aware of the situation faced by the apartment owners.
Micheál Martin said that a scheme to deal with the defects will be published in the coming months.
The apartments in question were mainly built between 1991 and 2013.
Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said that the introduction of the Building Control Act in 1989 by a Fianna Fáil-led government introduced a regime of "self-certification allowing builders to effectively sign off on projects themselves".
He said that 33 years on, the "fruits of the policy are now becoming crystal clear"
Many of those affected do not even know it yet, Mr Murphy claimed, adding that they are facing bills of an average of €25,000.
He demanded that the Government stop 'kicking the can down the road' and introduce a 100% redress scheme", which should be retrospective.
The Taoiseach insisted no-one has been more proactive than Minister O'Brien in dealing with the issues of defective blocks, and defective apartments.
"He has indicated repeatedly in the house that he will be bringing forward a scheme by the end of this year", Mr Martin said.
He said that those who constructed the apartments are responsible, but "the Government has taken the view that the residents should be looked after. It's not the residents' fault".
Mr Murphy responded: "These people are the victims of cowboy builders, but Fianna Fáil opened the door for the cowboy builders to jump through with your regime of self-certification."
The Taoiseach dismissed the remarks as "classic politicking and political spin. I'm just more interested in getting the issues resolved for the residents".
As a lot of expenditure on behalf of the taxpayer is at stake, the issues have to be gone through in a proper way, he insisted.
Earlier, Minister O'Brien told the Dail that €4.5bn will be spent by the Department of Housing in 2023 delivering homes under Housing For All.
Speaking during a private members' motion on Social and Affordable Housing Supply, he said the overall target under Housing for All is 24,600.
"[We] will exceed the overall target, and we will deliver affordable purchase homes for the first time in a generation, and they're homes starting from €166,000", he vowed.
He said that by the end of the year local authorities will have brought more than 7,500 vacant social homes back into use.
