Labour has hit out at the government on relying heavily on the private sector to provide social and affordable homes.

The party's housing spokesperson, Jan O'Sullivan, said social housing targets need to be increased as the State is not developing enough social homes.

She made the call after the latest figures on Social Housing Delivery Targets were published.

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Ms O'Sullivan said: "It is also clear from the pace of delivery of social homes that the whole process needs to be simplified, as it is taking too long between the proposal to build and actual delivery.

"It is taking at least three years for social housing to be delivered and we need to be aiming to cut this delay time by at least half.

"Despite the Government's positive spin on these figures, it is still not delivering enough social and affordable housing to meet the urgent demand.

"There is enough readily available land on which to build, such as the 700 publicly owned sites that have already identified."

(CD/LM)