Sinn Fein has accused developers of preventing "large tracts of land" from going up for sale during the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland.

Chairperson of Dublin City Council's housing committee, Cllr Daithí Doolan, said the situation is "unacceptable" and needs to be tackled immediately.

Responding to the Housing Supply Coordinating Task Force for Dublin, he said: "I welcome the recommendations that Compulsory Purchase Order powers should be strengthened. This would allow local authorities to buy some of this land and then commence building of homes. There is enough land zoned for 53,000 homes in Dublin city. That land could be bought and developed by Dublin City Council.

-- Advertisement --

"But key to this being successful is adequate funding from the Department of Housing. Consecutive governments have starved Dublin City Council of essential funding to build homes. This has directly caused the current housing crisis.That must change. Minister Coveney must release the much promised funding and let Dublin City Council get on with building homes.

"We can make the crisis history. What we need is government funding."

(CD/MH)