Sinn Féin has accused Government parties of knowingly using inaccurate information to mislead the public during the General Election campaign.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy David Cullinane said it was clear from the Central Statistics Office's October data that there was not a "snowball's chance" of 40,000 homes being built last year.
Figures from the CSO show that a total of 30,330 homes were built in 2024, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023.
Mr Cullinane claimed Tánaiste Simon Harris was "up to his neck" in the controversy given that the 40,000 figure was "hard-wired" into the Fine Gael manifesto.
He said that all the experts know what has to be done to solve the housing crisis but the Government continues to "have its head in the sand".
In his reply, Mr Harris said the people of Ireland had dismissed Sinn Féin's housing plan adding that the party's "vote had collapsed".
The Tánaiste said the Government wants to get people out of the box room in their parents' homes and to give them the ability to own their own homes.
There were over 60,000 home commencement notices in the last year and as sure as night follows day this will result in more homes being delivered, he said.
40,000 housing figure claim was 'genuine mistake' - FF TD
Earlier, Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne said the Government made "a genuine mistake" when claiming 40,000 homes would be built in 2024.
"Yes, we got the figures wrong around housing. It wasn’t a case of trying to deceive anybody, housing is the Government’s number one priority."
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Mr Byrne noted that "there were still over 30,000 homes completed last year".
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However, he said the Government was "aspiring to build more houses than were actually built".
"There were reasons as to why last year there were a number of apartment complexes for instance which were due to be completed and for a variety of reasons didn't get completed during 2024.
"But if you look at the pipeline of housing that’s coming now, we are seeing significant developments," he said.
Mr Byrne said the "critical thing" is that people seeking houses have "placed faith in the Government to be able to deliver that over the next number of years".
"That's what we have to do," he added.
However, Sinn Féin's Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said there is not enough new housing stock coming on stream and prices continue to rise.
On the same programme, he said: "The targets that they (the Government) have set out, both global targets for all new housing but also within social and affordable housing, are far too low."
"They're not just lower than what I believe is necessary, they're lower than what the Housing Commission, the Government's own independent commission, recommended last year, a report that the Government has completely ignored and isn't in the Programme for Government."
Mr Ó Broin said the reforms that are necessary to increase and accelerate the delivery of housing "have been ignored" by the Government.
The Housing Commission's targets are "about right", he added, but because the report was published a year ago and the targets have not been met, they need to be updated independently by the CSO, ESRI and the housing agency.
Mr Ó Broin said it is "not the case" that social housing waiting lists are falling and a Housing Agency report showed that they are rising.
"The solutions that are required to increase and accelerate both public and private housing are there. They have been written down, they have been published, and this Government is ignoring them."
