Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he believes 40,000 new homes can be built this year.
This would far exceed the Housing for All target of 33,450 new builds for 2024 and it is also a leap above the 32,700 actual new homes built in 2023.
In his leader's speech, Mr Ryan told his party’s convention yesterday that this year's housing targets could be exceeded.
"We are all acutely aware of the shortage of housing for our young people," he said.
Mr Ryan also referenced that each of the last ten months has been the warmest in recorded history and that average global air temperatures have gone above the 1.5 degree increase which scientists say is a tipping point, beyond which things could become unstoppable.
He said: "In Ireland, we have seen the reality with endless rain over the last ten months.
"Our fields are sodden, too wet to pick potatoes in the autumn or to sow grain in the spring.
"Cattle are still in their sheds. Around the world climate change is bringing havoc, causing conflict and forced migration."
Read more: Green Party conference strikes defiant tone
He added that there is a cynical form of politics that claims to support climate science but reverts to short-term political considerations when decisions have to be made and votes the other way.
"It is a subtle form of climate denial and it is time to call it out," he said.
Ryan on 'Nihilism'
Mr Ryan also paid tribute to Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman and condemned the protest of masked men who gathered at the minister’s home this week.
"The masked men who gathered outside his home last Thursday night do not represent our people or our national flag. They do a disservice to it. We surely cannot let such intimidation hold sway," he said.
He said that voters have a choice to make and that a nihilistic alternative politics of fear and division is on the rise.
Mr Ryan said: "I wouldn’t define it as a right wing or conservative movement because it seems to have little regard for traditional values.
"Nihilism might be the better term. They seem to reject everything that is good with an anger that in the end will be corrosive and self-destructive."
'Easy false' promises will not win over electorate - Ryan
Earlier, Mr Ryan warned his Government colleagues that "easy false" promises will not win over the electorate in the upcoming elections.
Amid a raft of promises on spending and tax cuts from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael recently, Mr Ryan hit out at what he said was a "tradition" of big promises prior to elections.
He said that voters would not be swayed by pledges made in April ahead of the budget in October, but he vowed the budget would look after those who need help most.
He said he believed the major issues worrying people are things like the fact that cattle cannot get out of sheds because it has been raining for ten months.
"People are worried because there are balaclavas on our streets. They want democracy to hold strong," Mr Ryan said.
Striking a determined tone, he said there were green shoots emerging all over the country and he predicted the party would win council seats in every county for the first time.
Next week he said a new national park would be announced for Co Kerry and his message to Independent TDs Michael and Danny Healy-Rae was that the kingdom is going green.
Mr Ryan said that this was not a time to mince words because the far right have been pushing to reverse green policies.
In the aftermath of protests outside his home, Mr O'Gorman said it was important that politics is protected.
He said that it was important for everyone, including the hundreds of candidates who are knocking on doors for the local elections.
"But I also think in terms of our response it has to be proportionate, because we can’t create a barrier between politicians and the public," he added.
Delegates at the Green Party convention in Dublin were urged to ensure the most divisive elements in society do not get a foothold.
Mr O'Gorman received a standing ovation ahead of his address to the convention.
He described the last few days as challenging.
In a hard-hitting speech, Mr O'Gorman also told the conference there were just 48 days of campaigning left ahead of local and European elections, which will define the next five years.
He accused some political parties of engaging in a version of "political fast fashion" as they wear the Green Party’s clothes but then cast them aside when they are no longer popular.
The Green Party was, he said, committed to its core values and it was that which saw it bounce back from having no Dáil seats in 2011 to its best election result in 2020.
The minister said there are political parties that hold the ballot box in one hand and the latest opinion poll in the other, as they flail around trying to find what is popular at any given moment.
There were pledges too that the Green Party will deliver further cuts to childcare costs in the next budget and a new initiative called Equal Start will provide support for pre-school children in disadvantaged areas.
Mr O'Gorman also pledged that a UN convention upholding the rights of people with disabilities will be fully implemented in the lifetime of this Government.
Standing ovation for Roderic O'Gorman at the Green Party Conference. Describing the last few days as challenging, he urged delegates to ensure that the most divisive elements in society don’t get a foothold. @rtenews pic.twitter.com/V7nsKicryb
— Mícheál Lehane (@MichealLehane) April 20, 2024
The party is running a record 112 candidates in the upcoming local elections and believes it can get at least one councillor elected in every county.
It also has a candidate running in all three European constituencies.
Additional reporting Mícheál Lehane, Tommy Meskill
