Sinn Fein has slammed the government's Housing Action Plan and said that its reliance on the private sector to deliver social housing solutions is not working.

The party's Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD said the Taoiseach essentially acknowledged what many commentators and Sinn Féin has being saying for years, that government over dependence on the private sector to deliver social housing solutions is bad policy.

He said: "The traditional Fine Gael solution to provide for the housing needs of the citizens of this state has been to let the market provide. This is evidenced in the government housing action plan.

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"79% of Rebuilding Ireland social housing delivery targets for 2017 are private sector 'social housing solutions' consisting of leasing, Housing Assistance Payments and the Rental Accommodation Scheme. The number of real social housing units due to be delivered in 2017, houses owned by local authorities or approved housing bodies, is only 4,450.

"Rebuilding Ireland also has no plans for the delivery of affordable rental or purchase housing. The two schemes the Government have proposed, the Joint Venture/Land Initiative and the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, look set to deliver limited if any affordable units.

"This is not good enough and the government housing action plan was never ambitious enough especially when you consider that the cross party Housing and Homeless committee recommended that the government should be delivered 10,000 social homes per year and a viable stream of affordable housing for middle income families."

(CD/MH)