The Government and opposition have clashed over the housing crisis in the lead up to tomorrow's Budget.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Fianna Fáil TD and Minister of State Thomas Byrne said, in his view, the Coalition's housing policies are working.
He said this includes the First Home Scheme, which allows first-time buyers of new build homes to receive up to 30% of the price of the property from the State under a shared equity scheme.
Mr Byrne also mentioned the separate Help To Buy scheme, which allows first-time buyers of new build homes to receive €30,000 from the State to help buy the property.
Mr Byrne urged Sinn Féin "don't abolish the First Home Scheme" if it enters Government after the next general election, saying if this would happen then "the affordability you talk about is going to be absolutely deciminated".
However, speaking on the same programme, Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell disagreed, saying "even my friends who are not political say they see Help To Buy as pushing up prices" and that "affordability schemes in Galway city still haven't happened".
Ms Farrell said her party wants to see "a freeze on rent increases for a three-year period".
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said another key housing issue which must be resolved is mortgage interest rates, saying some "vulture funds" are charging people "8% to 9% and that is outrageous".
Mr Tóibín said: "Government should be pushing that down to make sure families are not hammered" and said "peppering budgets with targeted measures" does not work as "those one-off payments are mechanisms to buy votes, they disappear like snow off the ditch."
Labour TD and finance spokesperson Ged Nash told the same programme that "undoubtedly people are experience a very difficult time".
He said mortgage rates and rising property prices mean adults are "living at home, living in childhood bedrooms and can't afford to buy a home".
Mr Nash said: "If the Help to Buy scheme is an answer, then we're asking the wrong question" and said what people need most is capital investment and "more affordable homes".
