Eamon Ryan, Green Party leader and MEP candidate for Dublin, has set out an alternative to the failed housing strategy currently advocated by government.

Mr Ryan said: "The Government is getting the response to the growing housing crisis in Dublin wrong. What we need is a massive increase in public housing, rather than the misguided mortgage support scheme that they have come up with.

"We cannot rely on the old model of state or bank funding for new public housing developments. The Green Party is proposing a range of new financing options which could deliver the housing needed.

"With long-term interest rates at a historic low we can fund, build and rent public housing in a way which provides a fair return to everyone. We can develop a more a unified model where the majority of social housing tenants pay a rent which covers the cost of those loans.

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"Those in financial difficulty can be helped to make the rent payments, instead of the current system where rent allowances go to the private rented sector.

"To make it happen we will need flexibility in Brussels on the rules regulating state borrowing. We will need to invest some of our pension funds in this area and we will need NAMA to take on a new planning and development role that insures it is a social as well as economic success.

"We also have to make sure that new housing goes in the right place. There is a huge bank of zoned development land both inside and outside the capital. We cannot afford for the sprawl of the city to continue. Given the absence of a proper regional planning structure or a directly elected Mayor for Dublin, the National Transport Authority must play a role in deciding which areas are going to be developed first.

"Areas close to the city centre and to public transport links have to get priority, or our whole city will choke. We have one chance to get this right. There is no sign the government is able to do it. The people must send them a message at this election that their housing plan is wrong, and they need to go back to the drawing board."

(CD/JP)