Housing Minister Simon Coveney has been accused of not knowing how many new homes are being built every year in Ireland.

Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD accused the Minister for of continuing to regurgitate misleading figures.

Responding to the Minister's letter that was published in the Irish Times, Deputy Ó Broin said: "Minister Coveney's letter confirms that neither the Minister nor his Department know how many new houses are being built every year. The use of ESB connection data as a basis for his figures is wholly unreliable and many industry experts and academics have stated this.

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"In order to bump up his figures, the Minister is deliberately mixing the number of newly built homes with existing stock that has been returned to use. If Minister Coveney cannot be trusted to provide reliable data on housing, how can he be trusted to tackle the ever worsening housing and homelessness crisis?

"The Minister has failed to objectively take on board the criticism of the inaccuracies associated with his department’s preferred data source for measuring new builds and is arrogantly maintaining the view that the department does not need to change its counting method."

(CD/MH)