Tánaiste Simon Harris has told the Fine Gael parliamentary party that the Coalition will be measured together by their overall progress on housing supply after Labour accused the Government off taking the country in "wrong direction".
He said everyone involved had to be deadly serious on the delivery of homes and treat it as an emergency.
The Fine Gael leader said the availability and adequacy of infrastructure, particularly wastewater treatment facilities to allow the building of more homes, has to be met head on.
The Tánaiste said many areas face severe bottlenecks due to the lack of wastewater treatment infrastructure and this has prevented local authorities and developers from building homes.
Mr Harris said taxpayer's money, which was going to Uisce Éireann, needs to be used for housing supply.
He said this was discussed at the Cabinet Committee on Housing - where it was agreed finance going to the water utility company will have to be ringfenced to enable housing supply to be developed.
He maintained this would serve to get new developments off the ground and ensure existing communities are served by updated sustainable infrastructure.
The Fine Gael leader said there also must be provisions to allow people, who are coming up with innovative temporary solutions such as modular housing, to construct these and they must be supported.
The Planning Bill, he added, must be quickly implemented.
'Policy on the hoof'
Earlier there were rowdy scenes in the Dáil as Labour leader Ivana Bacik accused the Government of not taking housing policy seriously while Taoiseach Micheál Martin accused her of "deliberate distortion".
Ms Bacik said the Coalition had come up with two ideas which could be described as audacious but would take the country in "the wrong direction": ending rent pressure zones and returning to Celtic Tiger tax breaks for developers.
She asked Mr Martin why Fianna Fáil did not seek a mandate from the public for such policies in the General Election, but preferred now to make "policy on the hoof".
The Dublin Bay South TD said it was clear the Coalition cannot communicate between the parties, and she asked how that sounded to the parents of the 4,500 children in emergency accommodation.
In reply, the Taoiseach said he challenged the Labour leader to find "any statement" in which he said he would end Rent Pressure Zones.
He accused Ms Bacik of a "deliberate distortion of what I have said", adding that the rent cap was being examined because it was due to expire at the end of the year.
Mr Martin said she needed to accept that the Government's Housing For All plan had exceeded its targets, and the voting public had rejected Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin's "codswallop proposals".
Ms Bacik accused Mr Martin of letting himself down by not "engaging seriously" with the Opposition.
The Taoiseach replied that Labour had an opportunity to go into Government "but you didn't show-up".
Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne described a proposal brought to Cabinet, for an additional €450m to deliver 3,000 social and affordable homes over three years, as "completely inadequate".
The money will be allocated to the Department of Housing to deliver the projects across 2025, 2026 and 2027.
It follows a Cabinet Housing Committee meeting last night, which was focused on implementing provisions contained in the Programme for Government, such as unlocking blockages in the delivery of homes which have been zoned but on un-serviced land.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and Minister for Housing James Browne brought the proposals to Cabinet.
Mr Browne said that the announcement includes 2,026 affordable houses and another 736 social houses.
Speaking at Leinster House, Mr Hearne said the Government was in "complete disarray" when it came to housing policy, and claimed the possible introduction of tax breaks for developers has led to some building projects being stalled.
He said the party's private members' motion this week seeks to end the bulk purchasing of homes by international investors - something that the Social Democrats wants to extend to apartments.
Sinn Féin's Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin claimed the Coalition has "thrown in the towel already" on its social and affordable housing targets.
The Dublin Mid-West TD said that money is not the issue but rather it is the absence of urgency from the Coalition to make the changes to achieve the goal.
But the CEO of Clúid Housing said the proposal to deliver 3,000 social and affordable homes will make a "significant difference".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Brian O'Gorman said the funding will enable an increase in capacity and delivery.
"Social and affordable housing often triggers the development of other private sector developments on the site," he added.
'Nothing off the table'
"At this moment there's nothing off the table," Minister for Housing James Browne said.
This, he said, includes tax breaks for property developers to increase the supply of new houses on brownfield sites.
"There's very little action on these brown field sites so we are looking at all options that we can do in relation to then. There's no decisions in anything in that respect," he said.
Mr Browne added that "all options" would be considered after a Housing Agency review of rent pressure zones is completed at the end of March.
"It is quite a challenging balance to meet. Renters are very much to the forefront of my thoughts," he said.
The minister said that the review was also looking at the concept of reference rents and that the "broader space of renters" needed to be protected.
He said that the issue of short term lets needed to be addressed through legislation, particularly in rent pressure zones.
He also criticised Opposition politicians claiming they do not offer clear pathways on how to deliver housing, adding "the whole of Government" is working together to deliver extra houses.
