Sinn Féin has raised concerns over the "alarming" rate of rising house prices.

Spokesperson on Housing, Dessie Ellis, said that he does not want the Irish housing market to revert back to Celtic Tiger levels of property prices.

He said: "The housing crisis in this state has been brought about by increasing rents, lack of social housing and a general lack of houses. These are issues that need to be tackled.

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"Housing has to be affordable and accessible to people all across this state. We have a situation where homelessness is on the rise, where young people are unable to move away from the family home and where a social housing initiative is severely under-resourced.

"Not too long ago I had a constituent into my office in Dublin North West who told me that they had put a bid on a house only to find out not even a day later that the cost of the house had been put up by €20,000."

(CD/JP)