The Government has been accused of "sitting on its hands" and failing to tackle the continuing increase in house prices in Ireland.

Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD commented after findings on the latest Daft.ie House Price Report stated that the average house list price across the state during the second quarter of 2017 was €240,000.

Deputy Ó Broin said: "This 11.7% higher than the same time in 2016 with house price inflation in Dublin is 12.3% in the year to June.

"Here, we have another report confirming that the cost of buying a home is increasingly unaffordable for many. The government has sat on its hands and has been reluctant to tackle the issue of affordability. In fact, the report indicates that government policies have contributed to the rising costs with the loosening of the central bank rules and the ill-conceived help to buy scheme.

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"We know from figures contained in response to a parliamentary question I received this week that the average all in cost for local authorities to construct a home is €191,857. This varies depending on size and location. This is €139,000 cheaper than the estimated cost of building a home for the private sector according to figures provided in a study on the matter published by the Society of Chartered Surveyors last summer.

"Local authorities should be provided with the funding to build these homes and sell them or rent them under and affordable rental scheme to people who are under a certain income threshold. The money recouped from the sale or rental of these affordable homes should be recycled back into the local authorities housing programme.

"Separate to this, I have stated before that the Minister for Housing urgently needs to ensure that affordability is addressed for the thousands of new homes planned on sites that will receive tax-payer funded infrastructure via LIHAF. It is not acceptable that there may not be any affordability criteria attached to these projects when taxpayer's money is being used to unlock the sites."

(CD/LM)